


The Other

by Luigi_Luigi



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series), Coraline (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coraline Fusion, Because of COURSE thats in there why WOUDLNT it be, Coraline AU, My intention was to rip off the movie script but I plan and I write and all hell breaks loose, OK LISTEN I could tag every single person but that's hard and also I altered pretty much everyone so, Other, Yeah mother fucker ANOTHER one of these babey, all the campers are technically in this, bc why the fuck not, dadvid, insomniac!David
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 05:40:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17740064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luigi_Luigi/pseuds/Luigi_Luigi
Summary: It's just Coraline the Movie but instead Max is there adding an occasional 'fuck' and 'shit' and a variety of other curses into the pre-written script.





	1. Fool me once shame on you

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Benny,  
> Fuck you.

The move was stressful. Max hated change. He hated that his friends would be very far away. He hated that the apartment complex they were going to live at was called the Pink Palace. Unfortunately, all he could do was grumble. David needed his new far away job and apparently he managed to get a good deal on the rent. Probably because the landlady pitied him. Max did, a little bit. He knew the man was dealing with his own stress. He could hear him pacing more than usual during his bouts of insomnia. 

The Pink Palace was a huge, old house that had been split up into three sections. Max and David had moved into the main section of the house. It was bigger than their old apartment. Their neighbors were an elderly couple that lived downstairs and some guy that Max had seen hopping around on the rooftop. Max wasn’t interested in socializing with them. David might have been, but he was too busy to do much more than give a passing wave. He was also too busy to entertain Max, who had gotten incredibly bored with trying to trip the movers as they brought in boxes and furniture. 

“David, can I go outside and explore the garden?” Max implored innocently. 

“The garden? Uh, sure.” David agreed. 

The man wasn’t really paying attention. Which worked in Max’s favor since he wasn’t really going to explore the fucking garden. There was a trail out back that led to some secret well. Max only knew about it since David told him not to go near it. So obviously, he was going to go find it and drop something down it.

Taking a minute to go through David’s things, Max pocketed one of the man’s stupid little tree charms and wandered out the back door. He’d traded out his usual red and white sneakers for a pair of yellow boots. It rained a lot out here and Max didn’t want to get chastised by David for ruining his shoes with mud. When he’d gotten about halfway down the trail he was startled by falling pebbles. 

“What the fuck?” Max muttered. 

Not seeing what made the stones fall, he picked up one of larger rocks on the path and hurled it up the hill. A loud yowl answered him. Max froze. He thought David was exaggerating when he said there might be coyotes or mountain lions wandering around. Another reason he didn’t want Max wandering around the property by himself. Max took on a quicker pace down the muddy trail, trying not to slip. 

Once he got to a clearing, he paused and glanced around. Another yowl sounded behind him and he spun around with a yelp. A black cat stood on a tree stump, staring at him with a look Max could only name as cruel amusement. Admittedly, he wasn’t used to experiencing the expression on the receiving end. Max scowled.

“You little shit.” He snapped at the cat. “You did that on purpose.”

The cat only purred and began to knead the tree stump. Max rolled his eyes. He kicked at a mushroom. Then he took a step back as he realized the suspicious circle of mushrooms he was standing in the middle of. He kicked some more at the mud until most of the wooden cover was visible. With a glance around the clearing, he saw an orange leafed bush and he went over to it. He pried off a branch, but found it was too thin to pry up the cover.

“Oh, cool! You found the well!” A voice suddenly exclaimed.

Max startled and whipped the branch around. It smacked hard into… A fishbowl? Max stared incredulously at the boy he’d made fall over. He was wearing a glass bowl over his head and blue gloves that matched his rubber boots.

“Jesus Christ, where the fuck did you come from?” Max asked.

“Over there.” The boy said, pointing in the opposite direction Max arrived from. He stood, brushing uselessly at his mud splattered raincoat. “Sorry I scared you, I’m too good at sneaking up on people I guess.”

“You didn’t scare me.” Max said. He gripped the branch tighter. 

“You know, most people can’t find the well. That’s why it's called the secret well.” The boy continued talking. Max’s eye twitched.

“It’s supposed to be so deep that if you fell into the bottom and looked up, you’d see a sky full of stars in the middle of the day.” The boy looked up with a look of awe on his face. 

“That’s stupid.” Max said with a shake of his head. He walked back over to the well. The boy blinked at him. 

“You’re the one who moved into the Pink Palace, right?” 

“Yeah, what about it?” Max said. He scanned the clearing and spotted a much thicker stick poking out of the mud. 

“Oh, well, it’s just a little surprising.” The boy explained. “My aunt Gwen? She owns the Pink Palace. Normally she doesn’t rent it to people with kids.”

“She probably fell sucker to David’s puppy dog eyes.” Max said with a wave of his hand.

“David? Is that your dad?” The boy asked, watching him wedge the stick under the wooden cover. 

Max paused. “Sure.” He pressed down on the stick and popped the cover off the well. 

“Uh,” The boy shifted anxiously. “I don’t think you’re supposed to take off the cover thingy.”

“Shut up. I just wanna drop something down it.” Max took out the tree charm from his pocket. He held it out dramatically before letting it drop down the hole. 

“...So, what’s your name? I’m Space Kid.”

“Space Kid? Who names their kid that?” Max exclaimed.

“It’s more of a nickname. Everyone calls me it.”

“Uh huh.” 

“So…” Space Kid gestured at him.

“Max.” 

“Good to meet you, Max!” Space Kid said cheerily, sticking out his muddy hand. 

Max looked at it distastefully, but he shook it anyway. David would be so proud. 

“The pleasure is all yours.” He grimaced, wiping the mud off on his jeans.

Space Kid seemed about to say something but was interrupted by a call of his name echoing into the clearing. 

“Uh oh. I gotta go.” Space Kid glanced back at the well. “You’re gonna put the cover back on, right?”

“Obviously.” 

“Okay! See you around, Max!” Space Kid said loudly and ran out of the clearing. 

“God, I hope not.” Max groaned quietly. 

He peered into the well. He had intended to listen for the tree charm to hit the water, to see how far down it was exactly. Space Kid had distracted him though. Max sighed. He picked up a small rock and dropped it down instead. He waited. And waited. And waited, until the gentle sound of the rock splashing into the water echoed back up the well for him to hear. Max pushed the cover back over the well and trekked back to the Pink Palace. 

Max didn’t mention his trip to the well or his interaction with Space Kid to David. The next day, however, awful red bumps had broken out across his palms and he might as well have been holding a neon sign that said  _ I went exploring way past the fucking garden. _

“Don’t scratch at it, you’ll hurt yourself.” David said, swatting at Max’s restless hands. 

He’d accidentally grabbed a poison oak branch when he was at the well and since there were no poison oak bushes in the garden, David had gotten suspicious. 

“I don’t have anything to put on it right now, I’ll have to make a trip to the store tomorrow or something. Please be more careful about the plants you touch.” David said, after he’d looked over Max’s palms.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, it was that stupid Space Kid’s fault.” Max griped, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket.

“He forced you to hold poison oak?”

“No.” Max admitted.

“I don’t see how it’s his fault then. I’d also appreciate it if you listened to me when I ask you not to do something.” David said. 

“I didn’t fall down the fucking well.”

“You touched poison oak, which wouldn’t have happened if you’d actually stayed in the garden.” David pointed out.

The man then went back to typing on the computer, deeming the argument settled. Max glared at him. They were in a room that David had hastily made into a little office. Boxes and papers cluttered the floor and desk. Max had been hovering in the doorway, scratching at his palms, and now made to leave as irritably and noisily as possible to get on his guardian’s nerves.

“Oh, I think that kid left this on the front porch.” David said.

Max paused mid-step. He turned to see David reach across his messy workspace to present a lumpy roll of newspaper. Max took it and peeled back a layer of the paper to reveal a note. 

 

_ Hey, Max! You'll never guess what I found! -Space Kid.  _

 

Max groaned with dread at what weird shit this kid could have possibly sent him and opened the rest of the package. To his surprise he found a miniature version of himself looking back with black button eyes. He gingerly picked up the doll by one of its arms. 

“Aw. It looks kinda like you.” David cooed when he glanced up from his laptop.

“No, it looks exactly like me. That's fucking creepy.” Max corrected. 

Did Space Kid make a fucking doll of him? No, his note said he found it. Sure he did. David only hummed in response. 

“I'm gonna go drop it down the well.” Max said.

“No, you’re not.” 

“Just seeing if you were paying attention.” Max grinned. He let his arm drop to his side, the doll thumping against his leg as he wandered away from the door and among scattered papers. David sighed.

“If you want me to pay attention to the fact that you disobeyed me yesterday, I can give you an actual punishment.” He warned. 

“All my stuff is still packed, you can't ban me from anything if I don't have it in the first place.” Max said. 

“Then why don't you unpack it.”

“That sounds exciting.” Max said sarcastically. 

“It's productive and it'll keep you from being idle. You get into more trouble when you’re bored.” David said with a raised brow, obviously referring to the well. 

“Unpacking is boring.” Max said as he peered out the window. 

“Then… explore the house?” David suggested weakly. “It's 150 years old.”

“So? I've already seen the house.” Max circled back to the desk.

“Look at it again. Count all the doors and windows or list everything that's blue.” David plucked up a small notepad from the piles of paper strewn across the table and handed it over. Max gave him an unimpressed look. 

“Please? I really need to work.”

Max stood for a moment, considering, before he let out an annoyed scoff and stomped out of the room. He went blindly down the hallway all the way to the stairs before he realized he was still holding the creepy doll he’d apparently been gifted. He lifted it up, a little less self-conscious about looking it over since he was by himself. 

Blue hoodie, check. Fluffy black hair, check. Little rain boots. Well, with how often it rained here, Max wasn’t sure if he’d ever get to wear his usual sneakers ever again. 

He found that the most unnerving part of the doll was its eyes. Button eyes were supposed to be cute and nonthreatening. At least, they were on Mr. Honeynuts. This doll’s buttons just seemed to stare into your soul. Maybe it was the color. Max’s eyes were a bright contrast to the rest of his complexion and he wondered if the doll would look better if it had followed suit. He stuffed his mini-me into his pocket and continued down the hall. 

The notebook David had given him was thin. Likely a majority of the pages had been ripped out. Count all the doors and windows and everything blue. If Max wanted to do this productively he’d put tally marks and only go through the house once. Except he’d already gone through the house before and he was only productive on his own when he was doing something that would fuck with David. So he circled through the house multiple times, jumping in the room right above David’s office every time he went in it, his notes turning from a lame scavenger hunt to a list of complaints that were mainly addressed to David.

 

_ 1 blue hoodie (me) _

_ 12 leaky ass windows  _

_ 1 set of stairs (but there’s a lot of steps so fuck you) _

_ 4 fancy windows (one has a crack and it’s in my room David) _

_ A shit ton of disgusting fucking bugs (in the shower David, unacceptable) _

_ Bad gross water (same shower, did you even check the pipes before renting) _

_ 1 stupid annoying rug with a bump in it  _

_ 1 rusty old water heater (uh don’t push the buttons by the door and don’t ask me why) _

_ 1 blue painting (that is so boring it physically pains me) _

_ 4 more windows (why are there so many fucking windows) _

_ 8 fucking doors  _

 

The last room Max ended up in had a fireplace in it. He didn’t write it down. He’d been bored the whole time, but now he was also tired of counting things and finding unpleasant surprises. He shoved the notebook in his pocket, intending to go back and bother David again. He froze. The doll wasn’t in his pocket. He didn’t recall it falling out. It must have though, during his trek around the house. Not that he wanted it. He would simply feel better if he knew where it was. Like shoved under his bed. Max turned and paused stiffly again. 

There was a thin, empty cardboard box leaning against the wall. Peeking out from behind it was the doll. It stared at Max with its big black button eyes. Max walked over warily to pick it up. As he did, he noticed some sort of panel also hiding behind the cardboard. Pushing aside the box revealed that wallpaper had been plastered over a little door, preventing it from being opened or unlocked easily. Max hovered a hand over it curiously. 

“DAVID! WHERE DOES THIS DOOR GO?” Max called loudly. 

Silence.

“I THINK IT’S LOCKED!”

Another bout of silence. 

“DAVID! ” Max yelled again, purposely annoying. 

He waited several moments and sure enough his guardian came stalking around the corner. David’s face was pinched between irritated and tired.

“What door?” 

Max pointed. David rose a brow at it and then looked back at Max. His fingers tapped along one of his crossed arms, the way they did when he was trying to keep his temper. Max watched them quietly. 

“Will you find a way to busy yourself and stop pestering me for entertainment if I do this for you?” David asked in a clipped tone.

Max nodded hastily and the man walked out of the room. After some rummaging around in kitchen drawers, he returned with a small knife and a strange key. He crouched in front of the door and cut through the wallpaper to free the door before popping the key into the lock. Max was met with disappointment as nothing but a wall of bricks was revealed. 

“What the hell?” He asked, glancing at David for explanation. The man shrugged.

“The house was divided up into apartments. This probably led somewhere we’re not supposed to go, so they blocked it off.” 

“That’s so fucking stupid.” Max muttered as David rose to leave. “And why’s the door so small?” 

“We made a deal. Why don’t you figure it out?”

“You didn’t lock it.” Max jabbed one final time. David threw the key at him and disappeared down the hall.

The key seemed to be old fashioned upon inspection. It was pitch black and it’s handle part looked oddly like a large button. Max closed the little door. It seemed pointless to lock it. It wasn’t like it went anywhere. He put the key back in one of the kitchen drawers.

Later that night, David finally took a break from his typing to make dinner. That’s what he called it anyway. Max was a picky eater and in his opinion the man had forgotten what passed for food. 

“You need to eat, Max.” David pleaded after several minutes of watching him push food around his plate. 

“I don’t like mashed potatoes.” Max sulked, looking at said mush distastefully.

“I know. I promise I’m going to get groceries later and you can pick out things you do like, but right now this is all we got.” David sighed. “Try some of the chard? It’s a vegetable I don’t think I’ve given you before.”

“You mean the slime?” Max picked up a spoonful of green gloop on his plate and let it slide off again with a  _ plop _ .

“Yes. Or you can go to bed. It’s late.” David said, micking Max by letting his own spoonful of green gloop splat onto his plate. He really should have gone grocery shopping earlier. 

Max glanced to the seat next to him where he’d carefully placed the doll on top of a bunch of stacked books. He’d put it there so it could stare menacingly at David throughout dinner. Now, he leaned over and, in a fake whisper that David could easily overhear, he asked the doll, “Think he’s trying to poison me?” 

He completed the act by making his mini-me nod in agreement. David rolled his eyes.

“Alright, bedtime.”

Max rolled his eyes back, but slid out of his seat and left to go to his room. He took the doll with him. 

Bedtime wasn’t so much of a demand for Max to go to sleep as it was to keep him out of the way. David let him stay up later than most 10-year-old kids probably should, but it was because Max had his own insomnia problems most nights. The man was always up later than Max, though. It was a wonder if the man would manage to stay up all night to work or if he would crash from the stress. Max didn’t really care. Either way, he wouldn’t hear David walking around the house as he tried to keep busy. Which was actually kind of a shame for the unpacking. 

What he did hear though, after managing to fall asleep for a few hours, was squeaking. Scratching and squeaking that only came from little mice. Or rats. 

“Jesus Christ.” Max hissed. This place was awful.

He tried to go back to sleep, but the constant faint scratching and squeaking refused to cease. Angrily he sat up and shifted himself so he hung over the side of his bed to peer beneath it. He caught the faint outline of a little furry ball right as it saw him and proceeded to leap out from its hiding place. A jumping mouse? Interesting. 

Then it jumped out of his room through the open door. Max could have sworn he closed that. He quickly got out of bed and followed the mouse. He half expected to have lost it, thinking it would disappear in some hole in the wall, but found he could see its shadow bouncing down the stairs. Max was led down the hallway all the way into the room with the fireplace and the little door. He ran in, nearly falling as his socks made him slip. 

The mouse squeezed behind the little door. Max smirked. Trapped, dumbass. 

Except it wasn’t. 

When he opened the little door, it was hopping down a colorful tunnel that was definitely not there before. Max’s jaw went slack. What seemed to be another little door on the opposite end opened up for the jumping mouse and he could feel a faint draft blow over his face. Admittedly a little mesmerized, Max found himself cautiously crawling through the tunnel. Right back into the same room he left. 

“What the shit?” 

Something like disappointment settled into Max’s gut. Same old wallpaper. Same old fireplace. Same old David’s shitty knick knacks on the fireplace. Same old-

Wait. The blue picture was different. He’d wrote it down, Max knew it was different. When he first looked at it, it was a depressing scene of a kid dropping his ice cream. Now the kid was happily enjoying it. 

There was a noise in the kitchen. Max realized the light was on. Was David trying to cook something in the middle of the night? It was one thing to go on a cleaning spree while sleep deprived, it was another to be using the stove. Max wasn’t interested in learning how to use a fire extinguisher on a person.

“David? What the hell are you doing?” Max asked, squinting against the bright light of the kitchen as he walked through the doorway. 

“Max! You’re just in time for dinner!” The man, who was indeed cooking, spun around. 

It wasn’t David. It looked like him, with red hair and an obnoxious smile, but…

“You’re not David. David doesn’t have b-bu…” Max stuttered. 

“Buttons?” Not David finished for him. The man chuckled and tapped against the big black buttons placed where his eyes should have been. “Do you like them? I’m the Other David, silly.”

“The Other David?” Max echoed, watching as the man turned away again to peer into the oven. 

“Yep! Now, why don’t you go on ahead to the dining room? I’ll bet your starving.” The Other David suggested. He pulled on an oven mitt, looking at Max expectantly. 

Max, honestly more interested in stepping further away from Not David than dinner, obeyed and edged along the wall out of the kitchen. 

Unlike the room with the little door, the dining room had a more obvious difference. There were no unpacked moving boxes in this parallel. Furniture was neatly arranged with decorative belongings put in their rightful places. The room’s atmosphere was bright and warm, which despite himself, was making Max feel more relaxed in this strange environment. He’d been hovering hesitantly by the table, scrutinizing the display of food on it, when the Other David stepped into the room as well. 

“Well, don’t just stand there, eat up! And look, I brought more food!” He said, holding up the whole golden chicken he’d just taken out of the oven. 

Max slinked over to the nearest chair and sat down in it. The Other David brushed past him to set down the chicken on a little platter that already had several dishes of food. Max watched as the little platter slowly started to spin, allowing him to easily reach any dish as it passed by. The Other David smiled at him as he sat down himself.

“Don’t be shy, take whatever you think you’ll like.” He said, gesturing to the food.

Max frowned, but he supposed he hadn’t eaten earlier and the chicken seemed pretty appetizing. Before he knew it, his plate was filled and he was starting to feel full. 

“This is actually really good.” Max mumbled. 

“Glad to hear that.” The Other David said. He propped his chin up on his hands, leaning over his empty plate. 

Max chewed slowly, still feeling a little wary. He didn’t just trust people. Even if they looked like David. This Other David was doing a poor imitation anyways. He was dressed different, his clothes lighter and less nature related. His posture was more relaxed and natural. A bit like how David looked when he was well rested and simply content. Which was rare. Especially recently, with how stressed the man was. The Other David had yet to ignore Max or be too overbearing. He didn’t seem at all concerned about the side glances he kept receiving, if anything he seemed amused. 

“I hope you’re not too stuffed.” The Other David’s voice broke through Max’s thoughts. 

A cake was placed next to his plate. It’s candles suddenly flickered on, illuminating the message written in icing. 

 

_ Welcome Home! _

 

“Home?” Max asked. The Other David nodded. 

“Now that you’re here, it most certainly is.” 

“Huh. I didn’t even know you existed.” Max said. 

“Well, you do now. And I was thinking that after you’re done eating we could do something fun. Anything you want to do.” The Other David suggested. 

“Anything?” Max narrowed his eyes. The word was either a loophole or a lie. 

“Of course. I won’t have any objections.” 

“Even if I wanted to, say, go take a walk into the dangerous and uncharted wilderness?” Max challenged.

“You’re perfectly capable of handling yourself.” The Other David chuckled. “Though I think you and I both know that there’s not very many fun things to do that involve nature.”

“You don’t like nature?” Max blinked. That was unexpected. Poor imitation indeed. 

“The only nature thing I like having around here is the garden and that’s because it’s actually interesting.” The Other David scoffed. 

There was a repetitive tapping noise. Max glanced down to see The Other David’s fingers drumming against the the table. 

“Right.” Max said eventually. “Yeah, I’d love to actually be able to do something… Fun and interesting, but I should get back. To the other David. Original David.”

“Wouldn’t you like me to do something about that poison oak of yours first?”

Max stopped midway out of his chair. 

“What?”

“It must be bothering you. One of the unpleasantries of plants, you know.” The Other David rose from his chair and beckoned Max to follow him. “I have something that should clear it up in no time.”

Max obeyed for no particularly discernible reason. The poison oak must have been really bothering him. 

“There!” The Other David exclaimed after he had slathered Max’s palms with a cool cream. It quickly stopped Max from feeling the need to scratch at the red bumps. Then, against his will, he yawned.

“Oh, you must be exhausted. Come on, let’s get you to bed. It’s all made up.” The Other David clamped his hands on Max’s shoulders and began to lead him up the stairs. 

“But I…” Max protested weakly. 

However, he was quickly distracted by the state of his bedroom. The walls were painted dark blue, no longer a pale off-white. His things were unpacked and organized the way they were meant to be. The ceiling didn’t have a crack in it and neither did that one window. His bed had several blankets and sheets and pillows instead of just the temporary sleeping bag.

“Whoa.” Max wandered into the room as the Other David leaned against the doorframe. “This is… almost exactly how I wanted this place to look.” 

“Hey, Max!” 

Max jolted at the voice that seemed to have come from the little picture frame sat on the nightstand. A closer look told him it was the picture of Neil and Nikki in front of a sign they had rearranged the letter on. They had given him the photo as a goodbye present. They were also actively moving inside the picture. 

“Oh, no fucking way.” Max hopped onto the bed to grab the frame.

A little Neil and Nikki waved up at him enthusiastically. A grin started to pull at the corner of Max’s mouth. He glanced back to the Other David, who watched him with a pleased expression. Well, Max supposed he wasn’t really that bad.

“Alright, I really think you should get some sleep now.” The Other David eventually said when Max failed to stifle another yawn. 

The man reached for the light switch, waiting until Max had gotten under the covers before he turned off the light. 

“See you soon.” He called faintly, just before Max drifted off. 

 


	2. Fool me twice shame on me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Benny,  
> What are we?

When he woke up again, Max was back in his old dreary room. Shitty paint, boxes everywhere, cracks in the ceiling and window. Nothing left of the nice room Max actually kind of missed. It must have been a dream. A really vivid dream. Max glanced at the chair beside his bed, where he’d placed the doll before going to bed that night. He had wanted to toss it under his bed, it did not deserve a place in his bed like Mr. Honeynuts, but then felt a little bad about it. Which he hated because feeling bad for an inanimate object that didn’t have feelings or hold any kind of sentimental value was incredibly stupid. Still, he had ended up leaving it on the chair. 

He stared at the doll, absentmindedly scratching at his palms. He looked down when he realized there wasn’t anything to scratch. His poison oak was gone. Max recalled the cream that had been placed on his hands by the Other David. He got out of bed and made his way downstairs to the room with the little door. Sitting in front of it, he braced himself and opened the panel. 

Nothing but a brick wall. Max cocked his head. That made sense, obviously. And yet… He placed a hand on the bricks, as if to test whether they were really there. Yep, impossible to budge. Nothing but a really weird dream after all. 

“Buttons for eyes, huh?” David commented after Max told him about it. He set down a small mug of coffee next to Max’s bowl of soggy cereal. “You should still eat your breakfast, you only dreamed you ate all that food.”

Max ignored the request. The cereal wasn't the kind he liked and, dream or not, he didn't feel hungry. He did take the coffee, however, ignoring David's silent disapproval despite the fact that the man had made it for him. 

“I have an idea. Why not visit our neighbors?” David said, attempting to balance his own bowl of cereal and a pile of papers in his arms. “I saw some mail on the porch that I think belongs to the man upstairs, you could drop it off for him. And I bet the couple downstairs would love to hear your dream.”

Max stopped drinking his coffee. He'd barely woken up and David was already trying to get rid of him. The man really wasn't subtle. 

“They're looney morons, David.”

“There's nothing wrong with being friendly. I'd like to talk to them, but I-”

“You're really busy, I know.” Max interrupted. “Whatever. It's not like I have anything better to do.”

The mail on the porch turned out to be several little packages with foreign stamps that Max was hesitant to touch because of how strongly they smelled. They were all addressed to Preston Goodplay. Preston lived in the upstairs apartment and was the one Max had seen hopping around on the rooftops. It took Max a minute to locate the arrow-shaped sign pointing to the stairs that wrapped around the side of the house. He groaned. Why were there always so many fucking stairs?

Somehow he managed to walk up them without dropping the precarious stack of packages. Once he got to the landing he unceremoniously dumped the packages in front of the door and gave a couple knocks. He’d been intending to ding dong ditch, but the door popped open at the last knock. No one was behind it to answer. Max peered into the darkly lit apartment. He got no more than a sparing glance at some cobwebs (and a chicken?), when a booming voice shouted behind him, “SECRET!”

Max startled as a long thin arm reached forward and slammed the door shut again. He spun around to come face to face with Preston. He was a tall, thin man that looked like he hadn’t bothered getting dressed for a few days, a bathrobe tied loosely around his middle.

“The famous jumping mouse circus is not ready!” He announced loudly, then hopped up onto the rail with perfect balance.

“Circus?” Max shook his head. “Uh, I brought this for you.”

He gestured to the pile of packages he’d brought up. Preston turned and grinned, stepping down from the rail to go through his mail. 

“Ah! New cheese samples!” He said happily. Then he narrowed his eyes at Max. “Very clever, using this mix-up to sneak into my home and peek at the mice.”

“What? I wasn’t trying to look inside!” Max snapped. “And you’re the one with the fucking mice? Pretty sure one escaped into my room last night then!”

Preston paused in his mail sorting to blink up at Max. A more friendly look came across his face and he leaped onto the rail again.

“You’re the new neighbor that moved into the empty apartment downstairs?” He asked.

“Yeah. Me and David.” Max said, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket. “Uh, I’m Max.”

“And I am the Amazing Preston!” Preston declared as he proceeded to do a handstand on the rail. “But, you can just call me Preston.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Max murmured, watching as Preston’s legs flailed in the air. 

His eyes widened as the man then purposely dropped off the rail, disappearing below the landing. He scrambled to the railing to peer over the side, expecting to see the sprawled body of his now ex-neighbor, but there was only the muddy grass.

“You see, Max,” Preston said from behind Max, making him jump. “The problem is that my new songs go ‘ _ Oompah Oompah _ ’! But the jumping mice play only ‘ _ Toodle-toot _ ’, like that. It’s nice, but not very  _ amazing _ .” 

Max just nodded and gave a pained smile. 

“So now, I’ve switched to a stronger cheese and soon,” Preston gathered up his cheese sample packages and stood up dramatically. “Watch out!”

He sauntered over to the door and kicked it open. “If you’ll excuse me, jumping mice do not get trained on their own.” He stepped inside his apartment, the door slamming shut. 

“Fucking weirdo.” Max muttered as he went back downstairs.

Of course, David had to pick this place to live. Max had interacted with only two people and both of them were annoying idiots. He wasn’t looking forward to meeting the elderly couple that lived in the downstairs apartment. The only reason he was heading over there now was that everything else was just as awful. The mud squished with every step and Max hoped he wouldn’t manage to lose one of his boots via suction. Or slip and fall and get mud all over him. 

“Hey, Max! Wait!” 

Max whipped his head up to see Preston waving at him from above. He shrieked as his neighbor jumped over the railing again, this time about to land right on him. Max curled into a ball with his arms wrapped over his head. He wheezed as he heard the dull thump of Preston landing, the man barely tall enough to not actually collide with Max. 

“What the fuck, you fucking psycho!” Max yelled, scrambling away as Preston crouched down to his height. 

“The mice asked me to give you a message.” Preston explained in a loud whisper. 

“The jumping mice?” Max asked incredulously. 

“They are saying,” Preston paused to glance around suspiciously. “‘Do not go through the little door.’ Do you know what that means?”

Max’s brows furrowed. “The one behind the wallpaper? But it’s all bricked up.”

“Bah. Sorry then. It’s nothing.” Preston straightened up with a wave of his hand. “Sometimes the mice get a little mixed up, you know?” 

Max watched as he crawled over the railing and strolled up the rest of the stairs. 

“They’re not the only ones who are a little  _ mixed up _ .” Max grumbled. He continued on around the house. On the opposite side of the porch was a reasonable set of cement stairs leading down to the basement apartment. Max hopped down them and knocked on the door. 

David had managed a brief chat with their basement neighbors on the first day they had moved in, while they were still in the process of dragging in all the moving boxes and bits of furniture. The man later informed him that the old couple were named Nerris and Harrison. Max hadn’t been paying much attention, but apparently they used to be part of some magician act thing when they were younger. 

The door had a window and Max, who was unfortunately very short, could just barely peer through the open curtains to see if anyone was even home. Instead, he was unpleasantly surprised by barking dogs jumping up on the opposite side of the window. As Max stumbled back, the door was opened and he was immediately ambushed by three dogs. 

“Oh, cease your infernal yapping!” A woman’s voice snapped. 

The dogs whined, but obeyed and started circling around Max excitedly instead. He left out a breath of relief. The old woman hobbled into the doorway. 

“Oh! You must be Max!” She said, adjusting her glasses as she looked him over.

“Uh, yeah. David said I should… Say hi.” Max said, glancing at her cane. There were oddly shaped dice dangling off strings tied to it. 

“Well, it’s nice to see you! Would you like to come in?” The old woman, Nerris, hobbled out of the doorway. “We’re playing cards.”

The dogs bounded back inside and Max hesitantly followed, shutting the door behind him.

“Harrison!” Nerris called. “Make some hot chocolate!”

Max frowned as he passed a glittery poster hung up on the wall. It was of a supposedly younger Nerris and Harrison posed in the midst of some kind of elaborate trick. He continued on to the living room area of the apartment. An old man shuffled out of the kitchen holding a metal tin. He squinted intently at Max once he noticed him. 

“Nerris, I think your being followed.” His voice carried an accent.

“It’s the new neighbor, Harrison. Max!” Nerris told him. “Now make him some hot chocolate.”

“Oh, no, no, no. I’m sure he’d prefer coffee.” Harrison said, staring blankly at the tin he was holding. 

“No, hot chocolate.” Nerris stopped hobbling along to stare at her roommate. 

“Ah, coffee it is then.” Harrison said, already shuffling back into the depth of the kitchen. 

Nerris sighed exasperatedly. Max bit his lip to keep from laughing. He was then led to a velvet couch that had been taken over by the dogs and an oval coffee table covered in cards. Nerris shooed the dogs off the couch and Max settled down on it in their place. As he did so, he glanced up to a horrifying sight. 

“Jesus Christ,” Max exclaimed. “Are those dogs real?” 

“Our sweet departed angels,” Nerris explained, looking up at the shelf full of taxidermy dogs with a forlorn expression. “Couldn’t bear to part with them. So we had them stuffed.”

Nerris settled herself onto a chair that was placed beside the table and began to name off the taxidermy dogs. Max meanwhile tried to think of the most shocking way he could present how fucked up their neighbors were to David. His thoughts were interrupted as Harrison shuffled over with a tray of coffee and a fancy bowl of brightly colored taffy. 

“Go on and have one,” Harrison told him as he placed the tray on the table. “It’s hand-pulled taffy from Brighton. Best in the world.” 

He shuffled out of the room again. Max looked at the taffy skeptically. It wasn’t a particularly favorite candy of his, but he reached out to grab a piece anyways. Or tried to. The entire mound of taffy was stuck to each other and the bowl. Regardless of how much he shook the bowl, he couldn’t get a single piece and eventually it somehow ended up stuck on the ceiling. Max innocently took the cup of coffee and pretended there had never been a bowl of taffy on the tray. 

“You could roll them if you like.”

Max guiltily focused his attention back to Nerris.

“What?”

Nerris presented the colored dice that had been attached to her cane earlier and shook them around in her palm. 

“The dice, dear. They’ll tell me your future.” She said in a haunting voice. “Go on.”

Max reluctantly took the dice that were practically shoved into his hands and half-heartedly tossed them into the table. They scattered among the cards, stopping just before they toppled off the edge. Nerris leaned over, adjusting her glasses, deciphering the roll. After a moment, she gave a little gasp and looked over to Max with concern. 

“Oh, Max. You are in terrible danger!”

Max frowned. Before he could call out any bullshit, Harrison shuffled over to do it for him. 

“Give me those, Nerris. A couple of gaming dice can’t say things about your future, that’s what the cards are for.”

“Cards? How are your ridiculous magician's cards any better than my dice?” Nerris accused, but Harrison was busy presenting Max with a fan of playing cards to choose from. 

Max plucked out a card and handed it to the elderly man. Harrison pulled on a pair of reading glasses and carefully peered at the card. 

“Ah, now.” He said with a grin. “Well, not to worry, child. This is good news.”

Nerris rolled her eyes. Before Harrison could continue with the specifics of his prediction, she swiped the cards from his hands. She rearranged them and held them out for Max to choose from a second time. 

“Really, Harrison. You always hold them wrong.” She said, looking at the card Max picked out. Nerris then showed it to her squinting roommate. “See? Danger.”

“What do you see?” Max interrupted. The fan of cards had been presented face up and he’d picked the exact same Ace of Spades card both times, so he was curious as what kind of charade they were trying to come up with. 

“I see a lurking presence that shouldn’t be anywhere near you.” Nerris said darkly. 

“I see a giraffe.” Harrison said. 

“Giraffes don’t just fall from the sky, Harrison.” Nerris scoffed. 

All three of them were then startled as the bowl of taffy finally fell from the ceiling and shattered on the floor. Max decided to take this as his means of leave. He got up from the couch, the dogs immediately resuming their place, and set down the little cup of coffee on the tray. 

“Well, um, thanks for... That.” Max said uncertainty. “I should get going.”

“Of course dear. Do be very careful.” Nerris said and gave a cheery wave. 

“Bye-bye.” Harrison said as he shuffled into the kitchen. 

Max didn’t run exactly, but he did exit the apartment with a much quicker speed than when he entered. Outside he was met with a thick, gloomy fog. Max got about a meter away from the stairs when he noticed what seemed to be a floating glass dome, just above the fog line. He scowled and pretended not to notice it as he walked closer. Once he was near enough he knocked loudly on the fishbowl, making it ring dully. Spacekid stumbled upright, arms flailing uselessly at the fishbowl on his head. 

“Ow…” Spacekid whined. 

“What the hell are you doing? Stalking me?” Max snapped. 

“I wasn’t stalking you. We were looking for moon rocks.” Spacekid said with a frown. 

“What do you mean, we?” 

At Max’s question, a familiar black cat jumped on the top of Spacekid’s fishbowl and meowed. Max glared at it. 

“Is that your fucking cat?” 

“Oh, he’s not really mine. He’s one of those wild cats.” Spacekid said, grabbing up at the black cat on his head. He couldn’t quite reach around the glass bowl. “I’m not really allowed to have a pet, but Jasper will come to my window at night and bring me neat stuff sometimes.”

“Neat stuff? Like moon rocks?”

“Yeah!” Spacekid said, oblivious to the others mocking tone. He ducked under the fog again, making only the cat still perched on top of his head visible. Max tucked his hands into his pocket and watched with disinterest. 

“Hey, so. What’s with that weird doll you left on my porch?” He eventually asked. “It looks just like me, did you have something to do with that?

“No, I found it that way.” Spacekid said. “It’s super old. Old as this house, probably.”

“Come on. You really expect me to believe you somehow managed to find an old doll that just happens to look exactly like me, after you met me?” Max said.

“Oh neat!” Spacekid exclaimed, ignoring Max’s argument as he presented a large glittery rock. Max glared at him until he put it into his pocket. Spacekid still didn’t answer him as he proceeded to change the subject. 

“You know, I’ve never been inside the Pink Palace.” He said.

“Really.” Max replied dully. 

“My aunt’d kill me. She thinks it’s dangerous or something.” Spacekid said. 

“Dangerous?” Max echoed. 

“Well, she doesn’t really talk about it, especially when I’m around, but when she was younger I think some other kid disappeared.” Spacekid explained. “Everyone else says they ran away, but she seems to think the house… stole the kid? Somehow?” Spacekid shrugged.

An echoing call of his name cut the conversation short. Spacekid turned in the direction of his own home with a frown.

“Aw. I’m not supposed to really be around here. Don’t tell my aunt, okay?” Spacekid said as he started to walk away, the black jumping off his head to go in its own direction. 

“Sure.” Max muttered. He glanced back at the Pink Palace. He wondered if telling David about a missing kid would get him to find a better apartment. He decided it wouldn’t. More than anything it would make the man twice as paranoid and concerned about Max going outside by himself and that was bad enough as it was. 

That night, Max heard the jumping mouse again. This time it was a burning curiosity that made him peer under his bed. Unexpectedly, there were actually three mice scurrying around. Each of them were equally startled by Max, though, and leaped one by one out of the room. Max scrambled after them. Once again he was led to the tiny door in the room with the fireplace. He stared at the colorful tunnel that lay behind the door. 

Another dream, perhaps. No harm in a dream. Max crawled through the tunnel until he came out on the other side, into the parallel room. There was light shining from the kitchen and quiet humming. Max wandered through the doorway. 

“Welcome back.” The Other David said over his shoulder. He was again in the midst of cooking. 

“Hi.” Max said quietly.

“I should be done very soon, just a few finishing touches.” The Other David tapped his chin. “Ah, I know. Would you like to go into the garden and get me some herbs?”

“The garden?” Max asked. “I thought you didn’t like nature.”

“Except for the garden. This happens to a good opportunity for you to see why.” The Other David paused in his cooking to reach over to a bowl on the counter. He plucked out a strawberry and held it out to Max. 

“Go on.” He said, as Max hesitantly took the small red fruit. 

Max popped the strawberry into his mouth, surprised with the rich flavor it possessed. He glanced back at the Other David before obeying the request to get some herbs from the garden. Stepping out on the porch he stared at the colorful and exotic plants seeming to glow in the moonlight. 

The garden here was most certainly a step up from the dried up, dead and rotting plants Max had started getting used to seeing when he looked out the window. Even the little miniature garden David had before they moved to the Pink Palace was extremely sad in comparison. 

He walked down the pathway, startling as some of the plants moved as though they were free reining animals. A few colorful, and possibly poisonous, frogs popped out from a patch of flowers when Max came near. Another patch of yellow flowers, that Max swore had eyes, tried to nip playfully at sleeves. As he crossed the bridge, huge pumpkins burst up from the water, already carved with grinning jack-o-lantern faces. 

“So what do you think?” The Other David called out from the porch. 

“I don’t hate it.” Max admitted. The Other David chuckled. 

“The herbs should be right over there.” He said. 

Max glanced around him. A slightly less exotic and more familiar type of plant was humbly placed near the right side of the bridge. He picked some of the plant and held it up for the Other David to see. When the man nodded in approval, Max made his way back to the porch. 

“Wonderful,” The Other David said as he took the herbs. “I hope you don’t mind breakfast for dinner. I thought you might like something a little different.”

“That’s fine.” Max said and followed the man inside. 

The Other David finished setting up the food on the table and Max began to eat. He noticed that some of the yellow flowers with eyes he’d seen earlier were in a vase in the middle of the table. He watched as the Other David picked up a sausage, broke it into bits, and began feeding it to the flowers. They nipped at each other as they fought over the pieces of sausage. 

“These are called dragon snappers.” The Other David told him. “Ferocious little fuckers aren’t they?”

Max choked on his food. 

“Oh, I almost forgot!” The Other David said, not seeming to notice his out of place swear. “Preston Goodplay has invited you to see his jumping mice perform after dinner.”

Max took a moment to recover. “Preston… The crazy guy upstairs?”

“I can assure you the Preston I know is no charlatan. I’m sure you and your friend will have a great time.” The Other David said, beginning to gather up the plates. Max frowned.

“My friend?” 

The Other David held up a finger to signal for Max’s patience and went over to the front door. He opened it to reveal a button-eyed Spacekid. 

“What the hell? Another one?” Max blurted out. “Spacekid isn’t my friend.”

The Other David gave a pat to the Other Spacekid’s fishbowl. The boy took it off and tucked it under his arm. “I thought you’d like him a little more if he spoke a little less. So I fixed him.”

“You mean, he can’t talk?” Max asked, noting how unusually quiet the other boy was.

“Nope.”

The Other Spacekid smiled and waved silently. It was a little unnerving, but not at all annoying. All Max seemed to be able to say about it was, “Huh.” 

The Other David took the Other Spacekid’s fishbowl and set it on the table before giving both of them an encouraging push towards the door. 

“Now run along, you two, and have fun.” 

Max made his way to the upstairs apartment, a silent Spacekid at his side. The boy seemed to be as ever cheerful as the original Spacekid that Max had the misfortune of knowing, but his lack of rambling seemed to make it bearable. However, Max couldn’t help but wonder what the Other David meant when he said he “fixed” this Spacekid. He hoped it didn’t hurt or anything. 

A tug at his sleeve pulled Max from his thoughts. The Other Spacekid was pointing up to a tiny blue zeppelin that was making its way to the upstairs apartment. Max quickened his pace, barely able to see it disappear into the little round window above the door. The two paused in front of the door, Max glancing at the Other Spacekid, before knocking on it. 

Rather than opening vertically, the door spun horizontally sweeping Max and the Other Spacekid roughly into the room. They landed with a thud and Max peered around, rather dazed. He brushed off the unusual entry as a tiny, but brightly lit tent caught his eye. Halfway to it, a series of bangs stopped him in his tracks. He looked behind him and burst into laughter. The Other Spacekid had discovered the miniature canons lining the walkway dispersed cotton candy and had managed to accidentally get several shot and stuck all over him. He took a bite of the one actually in his hand and caught up with Max. 

Spotlights fluttered across the walls of the tent, which was bigger than expected when the two crawled inside. There were tiny bleachers set up around the edges of the tent, though much too small to use. Max settled on the floor by the entrance and the Other Spacekid followed suit.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” A booming voice announced from somewhere unseen. “May I, Preston Goodplay, introduce my astounding, stupendous and amazing, Jumping Mouse Circus!” 

The tiny blue zeppelin Max had seen earlier appeared in the tent, circling around to hover above the little stage in the middle of the tent, before dropping down and exploding into jumping mice with tiny performer uniforms. The mice bounced and twisted in a matter of seconds to create an elaborate structure with their own bodies. A few of the mice not part of the structure had lined themselves up below it and began to play music on tiny instruments. Then the structure of mice dispersed and began their little show. 

They pranced about to the rhythm of their own music, creating shapes and moving seamlessly around each other with perfectly timed accuracy. A layered tower built up from the center of the stage and the mice bounded up until they filled up every inch of it. A jumping mouse at the very top balanced on a little red ball with a star printed on it. Then it began to roll down the tower, the other mice diving off the edge before they collided with one another. Once the ball reached the ground, the tower collapsed in on itself and Preston appeared in its place. 

The Other Preston had a slick and neat appearance, dressed in a bright red ringmaster uniform. Max stared blankly for a minuted before the Other Spacekid started clapping, Max fumbling to copy the gesture. The Other Preston plucked off his hat and did a dramatic bow. 

“Shit, wow. That was, uh,” Max tried to think of the right words.

“Ah…” The Other Preston hinted.

“Ah, a-amazing!” Max blurted out, recalling the word Preston associated with himself and the jumping mice. For this particular Preston, Max thought the word was actually accurate. 

“Thank you very, very much, gentlemen.” The Other Preston said with a pleased grin.

He stood upright and gave a nod to the jumping mouse still balancing on the little red ball. The mouse bounced and squeaked and immediately all the mice began to run towards the Other Preston in an orderly fashion, disappearing one by one up his sleeves until they were all gone with the mouse on the ball fitting neatly under the man’s tall hat. Max and the Other Spacekid stood up as well. 

“Um, thanks for inviting us.” Max said awkwardly, but genuinely. 

“You’re very welcome. Please, feel free to come again anytime. Both of you.” The Other Preston said. He reached over and opened the tent flap to let his two guests out. 

Max and the Other Spacekid ducked out with a wave, wandering back downstairs. The Other David met them on the porch. He rose a brow at the Other Spacekid, who still had some cotton candy stuck to him. After bidding him goodnight, the man plucked one of the sticks of cotton candy off of the Other Spacekid as he passed by. 

“Bye,” Max called after the other boy. The Other Spacekid waved over his shoulder and disappeared into the night. 

“Bedtime?” The Other David mumbled through a mouthful of cotton candy.

  
  



	3. Fool me three times well apparently i’m never going to learn my lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Benny,  
> I've got a spoon here with your name on it.
> 
> Note to self: invest in a melon baller.

Morning, as usual, brought Max out of the Other apartment and back to his shitty room. Once again he was inclined to believe it was all a dream, but he made his way downstairs to the room with the fireplace anyways. He had to check. Crouching down in front of the little door, Max grabbed hold of it with the intention of pressing his hand against the firm brick wall like he had before. Instead, he found that the door was locked. He pulled on it a second time, making the edges of the door bend until it slipped from his fingers. Max glared at the keyhole. Well, he certainly hadn’t locked it. 

“I found some rat crap.” David explained when Max asked him about the locked door during breakfast.

“Jumping mice.” Max corrected.

“Max, I really doubt there’s jumping mice loose in your bedroom.” David said.

“They are too jumping mice! They’re tiny and they jump!” Max exclaimed.

“A rat is more likely. Which is another reason to keep that door locked. It’s safer. I better get traps when we go out today.” David grabbed his notepad and added rat traps to his list of things to pick up from the store. 

“Oh great, you’re gonna kill them. Preston is probably gonna have a fit over that.” Max muttered, slouching grumpily into his seat. He didn’t so much care about Preston, but his supposed dream about the jumping mice was making him a little upset about their possible deaths.

“Preston?” David asked, looking up from his notepad. 

“He says he has a jumping mouse circus. Which is obviously bullshit, but he still might actually have jumping mice. ” Max said, picking up his spoon to swirl his around in his bowl of cereal. 

“Escaped jumping mice.” He added. 

David hummed, sounding distracted.

“I had a dream about jumping mice.” Max said. He glanced up at David. The man was completely absorbed in his notepad. Max scowled at him, beginning to stir his cereal more aggressively. 

“So,” David said after a few moments, oblivious to Max’s sour mood. “We need to get you school supplies, we need to get groceries, and I have to go drop off my work.”

Max made a face at the mention of school. 

“Do I have to come?” 

“I thought you wanted a say in what kind of food I buy?” David asked.

“Doesn’t it take forever for you to drop off your work shit?” Max countered, his voice beginning to take on a sharper tone. “I don’t want to sit in the car for half an hour.”

“I’m not leaving you alone here, Max.”

“Why? I hate running errands and I know you hate it when I get bored. Perfect compromise.” 

“You’re too young for me to just leave you by yourself.” David said like it was perfectly logical. Which it might have been if Max was a regular 10-year-old that had never been left home alone before.

“Are you fucking kidding me, David?” Max glared at the man until it clicked. 

“Oh,” David said, glancing down at the table. “Well… I suppose if you really don’t want to come along…”

“I don’t.” Max said coldly. 

“Okay.” David sighed. “I have my phone. If anything happens, I’m sure one of the neighbors has a phone.”

“I know.” Max said, drumming his fingers along the edge of the table in irritation. 

“Okay,” David repeated. He got up from the table and picked up his things. He paused once he grabbed his keys. Max watched him patiently. “I won’t be long.”

David hesitated a moment longer, then walked out the front door. Max waited until he heard the car drive away before he got up and dumped his cereal bowl uncaringly into the sink. Then he leaned against the counter as he considered what to do with his free time. He still felt frustrated, so he was going to have a hard time doing something he might normally consider fun if it wasn’t related to doing something David wouldn't like. 

Max glanced over at the kitchen drawers. The key to the little door was in one of them. It was always the little things that mattered most and what did Max live for if not petty spite. He’d unlock the little door and keep the key hidden so that David’s imaginary rats could terrorize him. 

After some rummaging around, because David apparently can’t put a key back into the goddamn key drawer, Max went to the room with the fireplace. He crouched down and stuck the key into the lock, fiddling with it until he heard a click. 

“There!” Max said aloud into the empty room. “Now David’s stupid jumping rats or whatever can phase through the fucking brick wall-”

The door swung open and the familiar colorful tunnel appeared before Max. He stared at it, blinking rapidly several times before rubbing at his eyes. He was awake. 

“Holy shit, it’s real.” He whispered.

Well, he certainly had something to do with his free time now. Max crawled eagerly through the tunnel. 

Once on the opposite side of the door, Max noticed that it was night time here despite it having been daytime in the regular world. Max never thought it odd before, since it had always been the middle of the night when he visited this place. He supposed, though, that this place was strange in general and paid no further mind to the detail. 

Entering the kitchen, Max did not find the Other David in the midst of cooking. Instead, a note, a small box, and an arrangement of food lay already made on the table. Max picked up the note and began to read it before sitting down and grabbing a slice of pizza.

 

_ Max, _

_ Nerris and Harrison have invited you downstairs after lunch. Have fun! _

_ P.S. You like sneakers better than boots, don’t you? _

_ -David _

 

Max paused and took a closer look at the black box that the note had been placed on. It was a shoebox. Setting down his pizza, Max pulled the box closer to him and opened it up. A pair of brand new red and white sneakers, that looked just like his old ones, sat inside. What Max wore was not something he’d ever been particularly picky about, but he did have the preference of his sneakers over the clumsy yellow boots he’d been having to wear for the last few days. As an added convenience, he hadn’t been wearing any shoes when he’d crawled through the little door. 

After having eaten his fill, Max put on the new sneakers and walked out the door with a spring in his step. He hopped down the steps and was on his way to the basement apartment when a meow made him look up. Bright blue eyes gleamed down at him from the roof. As they came closer to the edge, Max realized it was the stray cat he kept seeing wandering around. The cat jumped from the roof down to the railing that surrounded the basement stairs. It sat down and began grooming itself.

“Damn, there really is an Other everything here.” He muttered to himself. “Even Spacekid’s fucking cat.”

“I’m not an Other anything.”

Max stumbled back. “Oh shit!”

The cat, seemingly offended by Max’s assumption, got up and made its way along the railing, over to the fallen tree that lay beside the pathway. Max stared at it a moment before trailing behind. 

“Um,” He began intelligently. “You know, I guess the lack of button eyes should have tipped me off, but if you’re the same cat… How can you talk?”

“I just can.” The cat said as it began to climb up the branches of the tree. 

“Cats don’t talk at home.” Max said.

“No? Well, clearly you’re the expert on these things.” The cat said sarcastically. “After all, I’m just some ‘fucking cat.’”

“You are a fucking cat!” Max exclaimed.

“My name is Jasper.” The cat hissed, tail lashing. 

“Oh,” Max said. “Sorry.” 

Jasper turned his nose up and let out a huff, tail twitching. Max tried to change the subject.

“How’d you get here?” He asked. 

“I’ve been coming here for a while.” Jasper said. He straightened himself and proceeded to walk straight into the curve of the branch he was standing on. However, instead of colliding into it or toppling past, the black cat completely disappeared. Max couldn’t help but feel like he was getting an excessive amount of unexpected surprises lately. 

“It’s a game we play.” Jasper continued as he suddenly popped out of a hole embedded in the tree’s trunk. “He hates cats and tries to keep me out.”

Jasper leaned down and stuck his upper torso back into the hole. There was another fallen tree, mirroring the first, on the opposite side of the path. Jasper’s upper torso appeared out of the hole in the second tree. 

“But he can’t, of course. I come and go as I please.” 

“He?” Max asked, choosing not to think too hard about how the cat was doing anything he was doing. 

“The Other one that brings you here.” 

“...The Other David?” Max guessed. “He hates cats?”

“You think you’re close to him, don’t you?” Jasper inquired instead of answering. He climbed out of the hole.

“What do you mean? It’s David, of course I know him.” Max said with a frown. “I mean, the Other David is a little different, but honestly I’m not complaining.” 

“You think this world is a dream come true.” Jasper walked up the branches, towards the roof. He glanced behind him. “You’re wrong.”

“Oh, come on. I’m not an idiot. If there was something wrong here, I’d know.” Max scoffed. 

Jasper narrowed his eyes. He seemed about to say something further when he froze, ears twitching. In moments he took off across the roof and out of sight. Max shook his head and resumed his walk down to the basement apartment. 

There was an archway of yellow bulbs lining the door and tuning instruments sounded from within. Inside it was dimly lit and Max squinted through the dark for a minute until a bright light shined across his face. Holding up a hand to block out the light, Max saw that one of the dogs was holding a flashlight and was the cause for the blinding light. It sniffled around him curiously, wagging its tail, before leading him past a curtain. 

Beyond was an impossible room. Rather than the small basement, Max entered an entire theatre filled with hundreds of button-eyed dogs in rows of red seats. As he went further down the aisle, Max came across an empty seat next to an already present button-eyed Spacekid. The other boy was kicking his legs excitedly and waved cheerfully at Max when he saw him. Max waved back and sat in the empty seat. 

The lights above flickered and shortly after the stage curtains parted. For a moment, the stage was empty. Then cheap sparks sputtered, a poof of smoke exploded, and a button-eyed Nerris in a triangular hat and cloak appeared on the stage. With some difficulty, she straightened up and spread out her arms. 

“I am Nerris the Great! Prepare yourself for the wonders of my sorcery!” 

The Other Nerris waved her hands around. She waved her hands around a second time. In a somewhat delayed burst of fire, a button-eyed Harrison also appeared, wearing a yellow and black themed magicians suit. 

“I am Harrison the Illusionist! Prepare yourself for the wonders of my magic!” He shouted. 

“Copycat!” The Other Nerris said loudly. 

The Other Harrison somehow didn’t seem to hear her. He reached inside his jacket pocket and produced a fan of playing cards. 

“Pick a card any card!” 

“You forgot to pick a volunteer.” The Other Nerris told him. 

“Me?” The Other Harrison let his arms fall to his sides, losing several playing cards from his grip. “You were here first, why didn’t you pick one?”

“You expect me to hobble down those stairs to get a volunteer for your cheap tricks? I’m not your assistant!” The Other Nerris proceeded to give the Other Harrison a whack with her cane. Flowers exploded out of the end of it, as well as several colorful dice which scattered across the stage. 

“Why you-!” The Other Harrison threw the remaining cards in his hand at the Other Nerris. 

The stage curtains quickly closed as the two’s argument began to get more violent. Max wasn’t sure whether to wince or clap. He glanced over at the Other Spacekid who could only shrug with a pained smile. The rest of the audience simply barked. 

A minute or so passed, until finally a dog pushed out a barrel of water past the stage curtains. Once it got the barrel in the just the right place it looked up, tail wagging and tongue lolling from its mouth. Max followed it’s line of sight to the rafters of the theatre where Nerris and Harrison were walking across from each other to the edge of diving boards.

“Ready for a dexterity check, Harrison?” The Other Nerris called out, shaking her fist.

“Our lives for our cheap illusions, Nerris!” The Other Harrison swore. 

The Other Nerris opened her fist, letting two colorful dice fall from her hand into the barrel of water. 

“You first.” She said and the Other Harrison began to bounce on his diving board.

“Holy shit, are they seriously going to…?” Max glanced rapidly back and forth between to two magicians and the Other Spacekid, who again could only shrug.

The Other Nerris also had begun bouncing on her diving board. Once they both had reached a rather significant height and seemed about to jump, they both vanished instead. 

“I’ve said before, Harrison, and I’ll say it again,” The Other Nerris spoke from seemingly nowhere. “That stage is too small!”

Several dogs started barking in a certain area of the theatre and when Max looked over he saw why. A young Nerris stood vibrantly balanced on a row of red seats.

“Who needs a stage when we have the whole theatre?” The Other Harrison answered.

The dogs up in the balconies barked as a young Harrison revealed himself to be sitting on the edge of the center balcony wall. 

“Now, Nerris. We still need a volunteer!” The Other Harrison said. “Be a dear and help me choose just the right one?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely.” The Other Nerris said, clasping her hands together. 

“Eeny,” The Other Harrison called out before dropping off the balcony and vanishing again.

“Meeny,” The Other Nerris continued and also vanished with a swish of her cloak.

“Miney,” The Other Harrison appeared sitting on the edge of the stage.

“Max.” The Other Nerris said, startling Max, who didn't notice she was right next to him until she had spoken. 

She stuck out her hand and Max took it. He was led up to the stage. Max was positioned at the middle of the stage, right in front of the barrel of water. Nerris remained by his side as Harrison began to elaborate to the audience of dogs and Spacekid what they were about to perform. 

“It’s one thing for us to vanish and reappear when we know all the tricks. But to pull someone else from the magician's hat?” He spun around to face Max. “Surely, it’s a little more interesting when the person doing the trick still doesn’t know how it works by the end of it.”

Nerris’ cloak suddenly enveloped Max into darkness. When it was whisked away Max found himself balancing precariously on the rafters. He immediately clung to the nearest beam, equally terrified and impressed by his inability to figure out how he got up there. 

“Oh dear, how ever will he get down?” Nerris pressed her hands to her cheeks in exaggerated concern. 

“You put him up there.” Harrison said, straightening his gloves.

“And it’s your turn to get him down. Or am I the only one with all the magic up my sleeve?” Nerris narrowed her eyes, dropping her hands to her hips.

Harrison waved her off. He stepped over to the water barrel and waved his hands over it. Then in one quick smooth motion, he plunged his arm deep into the barrel and wrenched Max out of it like a rabbit from a top hat. He was set down on the stage, feeling a little dazed but nonetheless thrilled. The two magicians took hold of Max’s hands and bowed, inducing an eruption of barking.

By the end of the show, Max had a grin on his face he couldn’t be bothered to rid himself of. When he exited the basement apartment, the Other Spacekid following closely, he found the Other David waiting at the top of the stairs. 

“Hey, there!” The man beamed down at him. “Did you have a nice time?”

“Oh, yeah. They did this whole performance, Harrison and Nerris.” Max said. “Like really good tricks.”

The Other David began to lead Max back to the house, the Other Spacekid still trailing behind. 

“I’m not even sure if it was just tricks, I swear it was like actual magic.” Max murmured and the Other David hummed. The redhead paused at the bottom of the porch.

“You do like it here, don’t you, Max?” He asked.

“Uh huh.” Max opened the door and called out as he walked inside, “Night, Spacekid.”

The boy gave a half-hearted wave before the Other David closed the door. Max wandered down the hallway until the Other David caught up and directed him towards the dining room.

“You know,” He said. “You could stay here forever. If you wanted.” 

“Really?” Max asked. The thought of staying in this mirror world hadn’t exactly occurred to him before. Now that the man brought it up, though, Max found that he, in fact, had a selfish little desire to do so. 

“Sure, you can do practically anything you like here!” The Other David chuckled. “There’s just one tiny little thing we need to do.”

“What’s that?” 

“Well, it’s a surprise.” He pulled out one of the dining chairs and gave it a pat, signaling for Max to sit in it. 

Max settled into the chair, watching as the Other David moved on to his own seat. The man reached under the table and pulled out a little black box from under the table. He slid the box over to Max before resting his chin on the palm of his hand. Max blinked down at the box, recalling the other dark-colored present he’d been given not long ago. Intrigued, he pulled off the lid.

Big black button eyes stared back at him. Max’s earlier contentment quickly seeped out of him as his sight drifted down to the needle and spool of black thread. He blinked again. 

“Black is traditional.” The Other David’s voice made Max glance up at him. 

“But if you’d prefer blue,” The man tapped at his own button eyes and they flashed the named color.

“Or vermillion,” Max looked back down the table.

“Or chartreuse,” The buttons in the box flashed.

“Though,” The Other David said, in a voice too cheerful. “You might make me jealous.”

“What the fuck? No way!” Max shook his head and shoved the button box away from him. “You’re not sewing fucking buttons into my eyes!”

The Other David caught the box before it could fly off the edge of the table.

“Oh, but I need a yes if you want to stay here.” The Other David tried to explain. He picked up the needle from the box. “So sharp you won’t feel a-”

He cut himself off at the look Max was giving him. He let out a sigh and put back the needle. As he picked up the box, he stood and made his way over to Max.

“Well, now. It’s your decision.” He said, leaning on Max’s chair. “I only want what’s best for you.”

Max sat stiffly. He felt a little cheated and a little angry but mostly terrified at the mess that had just transpired. In his desperate panic to get as far away from the Other David as possible, preferably without alerting the man of this any more than he already had, Max blurted out the first excuse he could think of.

“I’m going to bed, right now!” He said, too loudly, and practically jumped out of his seat.

“Bed?” A confused look came across the Other David’s face. “Before dinner?”

Max swallowed and forced a casual smile onto his face, hoping it didn’t look too much like a grimace. 

“I’m really, really tired. Which, like, never happens. So, you know?” Max let out a fake yawn. “I just need to... sleep on things.”

The Other David hesitated a moment before saying, “Of course you do.” 

Max swore he could detect a hint of nervousness in the man’s voice. He still continued to make his way to the stairs. However, before he could quite reach them, the Other David blocked his path.

“Just so you know,” He said. “I’m not worried at all. Soon you’ll see things my way.” 

Max bit down hard on his tongue in order not to flinch as the Other David ruffled his hair. The action was rougher than Max was accustomed to it being. Wrong. Max stretched his smile and stepped around the Other David to continue up the stairs. 

Once he was out of sight, Max immediately sprinted the rest of way to his room. He slammed the door shut, breathing heavily. He was startled as he was addressed by Mr. Honeynuts. Max slowly turned his head.

“What’s wrong, Max?” The stuffed bear asked. 

Max’s attention was then directed to the frame on the nightstand.

“Where're your buttons?” The picture of Nikki and Neil asked him. 

“Don’t you want to stay?” Mr. Honeynuts cocked his head.

Max glared at them. He turned around fully, his hands forming angry fists at his sides.

“Mr. Honeynuts doesn’t fucking talk.” Max said matter-o-factly. He stalked over to the bed and snatched up the bear. “Nikki and Neil are not idiotic enough to put fucking buttons in their eyes.” He grabbed the frame.

He took the two objects over the trunk that was in the corner of this room and dumped them inside. He shoved the heavy trunk in front of the door, barely able to slide it across the floor. He grabbed the collection of books from the shelves and threw them into the trunk as well, giving it more weight. He continued to grab every loose item he could get his hands on and place it into the trunk. Then he turned off the light, climbed into the bed, and hid under several layers of blankets and sheets. He willed himself to go to sleep. 

After what felt like hours of laying there, Max eventually fell into a fitful doze. His logic was reliant on the fact that every time he had fallen asleep in this place he woke back up in his own real world. In his shitty room, with the shitty paint and cracked ceiling. Where David didn’t try to make sewing buttons into your eyes seem like a perfectly normal proposition. Max missed David. He had been missing him for a while now since they had moved to the Pink Palace. 

Max realized he’d woken up. He was still bundled up under his blankets and was starting to feel overheated. He quickly threw off the covers and called out David’s name. His hesitant relief was wrenched out of him as he saw that he wasn’t in his room.

“Oh god,” Max curled up into himself. “I’m still here?”

Somehow, The Other David was how Max came and went from this place. While he let Max leave before, the Other David didn’t want him to leave now until he got what he wanted. And the Other David wanted to sew buttons in Max’s eyes. Max sure as hell didn’t know why, but he was never going to willingly allow that happen. 

After throwing out everything that weighed down the trunk, Max pushed it away from the door and went downstairs. The little door was how Max got here. All he had to do was crawl back through before the Other David realized he was out and about. 

Except that the door to the room with the fireplace was already locked. No matter how hard Max pulled on the door handle, it wouldn’t open. Max cursed under his breath. Fine, if he couldn’t sneak out then he would have to be a little more confrontational. 

“Hey, asshole!” Max shouted. He began to walk around the house, looking for the Other David. “Where are you, mother fucker? I wanna go home!”

However, the rooms were empty. The Other David had seemingly vanished. Max was yelling at nothing more than thin air. He continued to walk through the house a few more times, before stopping by the back door. The Other David wouldn’t let him leave, so Max was going to have to find his own way out. 

He stepped out the back door, going aimlessly at first, but quickly finding the path that led to the well. He kept a fast pace. 

“And what do you think you’re doing?” 

Max looked down to see Jasper walking beside him. 

“I’m getting out of here.” Max said. “That’s what I’m doing.” 

Jasper didn’t say anything. Glancing around, Max noticed something wrong with their surroundings. There was a sort of painted look to the trees and the ground and the sky. It was all blobby and without detail. The leaves looked like a smeared green and the stars like a quick splatter. Further ahead was just... blank. A white canvas. 

“What’s with this place? Shouldn’t the old well be here?” Max asked.

“Nothing out here.” Jasper said. “It’s the empty part of this world. He only made what he knew would impress you. Things he thought would entice you to stay.”

“Things that would make me think this place was better.” Max muttered. “But why does he want me?”

Jasper tilted his head, giving the question some thought. 

“He wants something to love, I think. Something that isn’t himself.” Jasper paused. “Or, maybe, he just loves something to eat.”

Jasper’s eyes narrowed in dark amusement. Max frowned, not finding the suggestion at all funny. 

As they continued further into the emptiness, something started to form in the distance. Slowly color and form began to shape around them, creating the Pink Palace. The grass and trees looked as real as Max had initially thought they were. 

“How do you walk away from something,” Max glanced behind him, all traces of the emptiness covered up and hidden away. “...And still come back to it?” 

“Walk around the world.” Jasper said in explanation. 

“Small world.” Max said. 

What sounded like a tiny trumpet suddenly played in the distance. Jasper tensed up and immediately dashed into the bushes. He burst out a moment later, a squirming jumping mouse caught between his teeth. 

“Hey, wait! He’s one of the circus mice!” Max exclaimed, reaching out a hand.

The black cat ignored him and bit into the jumping mouse. It’s bones crunched audibly and Max winced. However, to his surprise and horror, the once cute little mouse transformed into a large, ugly rat. Sawdust poured out from its mouth. Jasper let the unsightly rodent drop from his jaws. 

“I don’t like rats at the best of times, but this one was sounding an alarm.” He said, before picking his kill back up and dashing away. 

“Good kitty.” Max whispered after the cat as he watched him go. Then he turned to the Pink Place. He still needed to escape from this place. 

Max made his way up the porch and noticed the umbrella stand near the front door. Poking through the umbrellas, he ended up pulling out a cane. Max didn’t have a key, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find a way to get into the room with the little door. He just had to be a little creative. He stuck the cane through to loop of the door handles and proceeded to pry off the entire plate the lock was attached to. 

Pushing open the doors revealed the dark room, the light from the hallway shining down right onto the little door. Max stepped forward. Skittering echoed throughout the room as a large mass emerged from the shadows and sat itself in front of the little door. As a strange hue began to light up the room, Max saw that it was an enormous cockroach-like creature that had blocked the little door. It had button eyes, of course. As did the several other furniture-shaped bug-like creatures also in the room. 

“They say even the proudest spirit can be broken. With love.” The Other David’s voice came from the larvae-couch seated in the middle of the room. 

Before Max could even try to step back out of the room, a bug-chair knocked him into its seat. The armrests held him firmly and he was brought to the Other David. The coffee table between them fluttered its wings. 

“Of course, chocolate never hurts.” The Other David said cheerfully. A blue bug skittered over to hand him a box. 

“Like one?” The Other David offered. A glance into the box showed little brown beetles wriggling around in their paper wrappings. “They’re cocoa beetles from Zanzibar.” 

“Eugh,” Max gagged as the Other David picked up a beetle and ate it. He certainly seemed to enjoy the unusual treat. Taking a moment to push down his disgust, Max shook his head and got right to the point. 

“I want to go home. To the real David. I want you to let me go.” He demanded.

The Other David frowned and put down the box of bug chocolate. 

“Is that any way to talk to your father?” The man asked, hands on his hips. 

Max blinked at him and scoffed, loud and rude. 

“You are  _ not _ David.” He hissed out bitterly. 

“Apologize at once, Max.” The Other David ordered, a barely contained look of irritation coming over his face.

“No.” 

“I’ll give you till the count of three.” 

Max leaned back stubbornly in his seat. Till the count of three? How childish did he think Max was? 

“One.” There was a faint crackling noise, coming from the Other David. Were those his bones? The man was becoming gaunt. 

“Two.” He was quickly towering over Max without even standing up. He was turning very pale, even his hair looked bleached.

He looked nothing like David anymore and he was terrifying. 

“Three!” The button-eyed  _ thing _ screeched. 

Max yelped as he was suddenly hauled up into the air, having been picked up by the hood of his blue sweater. He swatted useless at the bony hand that was now dragging him down the hall. 

“Let go of me!”

He was dropped in front of the mirror at the end of the hall before getting shoved through it. He landed on a cold cement ground.

“You may come out when you’ve learned to be a loving son!” Max was scolded before being left completely alone in the dark room.

He leapt up, kicking and pounding against the back of the mirror. Though to no avail, as the wall was nothing more than rough cement that was started to break the skin of Max’s angry little fists. He stepped back defeatedly, panting. Faint whispers echoed within the room.

“Who’s there?” Max looked around wildly. 

A glowing light appeared in the corner of the small dark room. It was hidden under a blanket on an old worn bed, flickering as the haunting whispers spoke again.

“Hush and shush.”  They begged him. “For the Other might be listening.”

“The Other... The Other David?” Max asked. He wasn’t given a reply.

Cautiously he stepped closer to the bed and reached out a hand, hesitating a moment before pulling away the blanket. Three ghostly figures huddled close to each other as they were revealed. Expressions of pain and sadness were frozen on their faces. Max shivered. 

“Who are you?” He managed to say. 

The smallest of the pale ghosts drifted forward. 

“Don’t remember our names.” He said, his voice accented. “But I remember my true father.”

“Why are you all here?” Max glanced at the other two ghosts as they joined the smallest one. 

“The Other.” They said in unison. The larger of the ghosts came forward and flowed around Max. 

“He, and she, spied on our lives through the little dolls’ eyes.” He explained.

“And saw that we weren’t happy.” The little ghost continued. 

“So, they lured us away with treasures and treats,” Said the third ghost.

“And games to play.” The little ghost continued again. “Gave all that we asked...”

“Yet we still wanted more.” The large ghost sighed. 

“So,” The third ghost drifted in front of Max. “We let them sew the buttons.”

She rushed forward and let her form go through Max, leaving an after image of buttons on his own eyes. Max gasped, pressing his hands to his eyes until the image faded. 

“The Other said that they loved us.” 

“But it locked us here.”

“And ate up our lives.”

Max leaned against the bed frame. A chilled sorrow was seeping into him. It didn’t feel entirely his own. He took a breath and summoned forth the stubborn determination that was always somewhere in him. 

“Well, he can’t keep me in the dark forever. Not if he wants to win my life.” Max stood straight and walked over to the wall, pressing a hand against it. “Beating him is my only chance.”

The ghosts glanced at each other before the largest ghost drifted forward hesitantly. 

“If you do manage to win your escape, maybe you could find our eyes.” He suggested.

“He took your eyes?” 

“Yes,” The large ghost brought a hand up to one of his buttons. “And hidden them.”

“Find our eyes and our souls will be freed.” The smallest ghost said. 

“...I...I’ll try.” Max promised before he was suddenly grabbed and yanked back through the wall. 

  
  



	4. A fool no longer and now somebody is gonna get stabbed in the knees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Benny,  
> I've got a melon baller here with your name on it.

The assailant tried to keep their hand over over his mouth, tried to keep his limbs from flailing, but they had hardly any strength and Max was quick. He managed to hike them up onto his back just enough so they didn’t have any leverage of their own, before backing up hard into the wall. The picture frames rattled in his effort. He did it again until they lost their grip on him and slumped to the floor. Max spun around to see that the attacker was the Other Spacekid. 

The boy had the fishbowl on his head again, but it had been scribbled all over with a black marker, seemingly as some poor attempt to hide his identity. As Max pulled off the glass bowl he saw that he’d actually managed to make the back of it shatter when he’d made it knock into the wall. Max glared down angrily at the cowering button-eyed Spacekid. He relented, however, when he saw the other boy’s face. Bits of twine were tied up high on his cheeks, stretching his mouth into an awful smile. 

The Other Spacekid flinched as Max crouched down and reached out to the twine. He relaxed once Max simply freed him of his forced grin. He rubbed at his cheeks, funnily enough managing to look more pleased with a frown.

“What the hell are you doing?” Max hissed. 

The Other Spacekid pointed at the mirror and then at Max. He then stood and pressed a gloved finger to his lips. 

“Shh!” 

He grabbed Max’s wrist and rushed them down the hallway, towards the room with the fireplace. The room was dark again, though the large cockroach was still guarding the little door. The Other Spacekid lead them to it and began to push at it. Max glanced back at the empty hallway before helping the other boy. The cockroach lost it’s balanced and crashed to the floor, finally freeing the little door.

“Max? Is that you?” The Other David called from somewhere upstairs. 

“Shit!” Max swore. He opened up the little door. The tunnel was there, though it was looking a little worse for wear. No longer bright and colorful, it was now dreary and full of cobwebs. Max paused, glancing back at the Other Spacekid. 

“He did that to you, didn’t he?” Max gestured to his cheeks. The other boy only glanced anxiously at the hallway. 

“Come on,” Max tugged at the Other Spacekid’s hand, towards the little door. “He’ll hurt you again!” 

The Other Spacekid shook his head and pulled his arm back. He presented his hand and pulled off his glove. In the poorly lit room, it was hard to tell that his hand was nothing but sawdust, which disintegrated at the simple blow of his own breath. Max stared at him speechless and helpless.

“Max!” The tunnel rattled. “How dare you disobey your father!”

The Other Spacekid disregarded Max’s hesitation and shoved him into the tunnel. The little door slammed shut and Max could only press his hands against it in apology. The tunnel rattled again at the muffled voice of the Other David. Max turned himself around and crawled as fast as he could through the tunnel, back to the real world. 

Max tumbled out into the room with the fireplace. He quickly closed the little door and locked it with the key that was still stuck in the keyhole. It was daylight outside. Max stood and started brushing cobwebs out of his hair and off his clothes. 

“David?” He called out. 

Max wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone in the other world, but the man must have come back home by now. He was probably worried since Max would have seemed to have disappeared. Max wandered down the hall, continuing to call David’s name. He didn’t hear a reply from upstairs. There was no one in the messy office when Max poked his head in. When he got to the kitchen, though, he did see shopping bags on the table. 

Max tipped over one of the grocery bags and was given the unpleasant surprise of half-rotted food. David had come back at some point, but it seemed the time frame was closer to days rather than hours. 

The doorbell rang. It was a silly notion, David wouldn’t ring his own doorbell, especially if Max wasn’t there, but Max was still hit with disappointment when he opened the door for Spacekid. 

“The Spacekid that talks.” Max muttered.

“Huh?” Spacekid gave him a confused look, before waving off the odd comment with a laugh. “Yeah. So you know that old doll I gave you?”

Max continued to look at him with disinterest. Spacekid rubbed at the back of his head. 

“My aunt is real mad. She says it belonged to a kid she knew, the one that disappeared?”

“You stole that doll, didn’t you?” Max narrowed his eyes. This was all Spacekid’s fault. 

“Well, it looked just like you! And I figured…” 

“It used to look like some little kid in overalls, then some girl with ripped jeans, and then-” Max cut off his own rant. “The kid that disappeared.”

Spacekid stared blankly. 

“I think I saw them. Come here.” Max grabbed Spacekid’s arm and dragged him inside.

“Uh, listen, I’m really not supposed to be-” Max yanked harder on Spacekid’s arm to make him shut up. 

He led them all the way to the room with the fireplace before he let go of the boy’s arm. Spacekid glanced around awkwardly before Max directed his attention to the little door. 

“They’re in there.” Max said.

Spacekid gave a concerned look at the little door. He crouched down in front of it.

“Can you unlock it?” He asked, reaching for the key. Max slapped his hand away.

“Absolutely not. Not that it’d matter.” Max glared at the door. “They can’t escape without their eyes. None of them can.” 

Spacekid took a few steps back. 

“Um, yeah. So I really need to get that doll.”

“Great! I’d love to get rid of it!” Max took hold of Spacekid’s arm again to drag him upstairs.

Bursting into his room, Max made a beeline for the chair by the door where he had last left the doll. It wasn’t there. Max groaned. 

“Where are you hiding, you little tattletale?” He snapped. 

Spacekid lingered near the doorway as Max began to pull apart his room in his search for the doll. 

“The doll is the spy.” Max started to mutter aloud. “It watches you, finds out what’s wrong with your life. Then it reports back to the Other and the manipulative bastard uses that to make everything in his little fucking world seem so much better.” Max slammed down the lid of the trunk he’d been rummaging through. “But it’s all a trap.”

Spacekid chuckled nervously, slowly backing away towards the door. “Heh, right. Oh! Um, I think I heard someone calling me?”

“You don’t believe me?” Max accused, making Spacekid freeze. “You can ask Jasper!”

“I can- Jasper? The cat?” Spacekid shook his head. “You know what, I’ll just tell Gwen that you couldn’t find the doll.”

A red and white shoe bounced off his fishbowl and Spacekid stumbled into the hall. 

“You. Are not. LISTENING TO ME!” Max yelled, tugging off his other shoe. 

“That’s ‘cause you’re  _ crazy! _ ” Spacekid escaped down the hall, screaming and barely dodging the second shoe thrown at him. 

Max sprinted after him, grabbing his shoes as he went. Spacekid shrieked as he again dodged the second assault of shoes and ran out the front door. 

“Mother fucker!” Max shouted, slowing as he reached the porch steps.

“Crazy!” Spacekid retorted over his shoulder as he left the Pink Palace property. 

“Crazy? You’re the stupid shit that gave me the fucking doll!” Max screeched before losing sight of the other boy. Slowly he became aware of the rain soaking into his clothes. 

Max shifted in the puddle he was standing in, his socks and the bottoms of his jeans dripping wet. He scowled. Turning to go back into the house, he realized David’s car was parked to the side. Max hurried over and peered into the window. Obviously, the man he was looking for wasn’t inside, but he saw a pink phone sitting in the driver's seat. The door was unlocked and Max picked up the cellular device.

From time to time, Max would steal David’s phone to mess with him or simply to play games on it. David never really appeared to be bothered by it, in fact, he tended to seem more amused by it than anything. The man would never leave his phone unattended in the car though, not with the knowledge that he’d left Max by himself with only the phone as a form of contact. 

“Where have you gone?” Max whispered to the pink device. 

He ended up sitting in the car for some time before actually going back into the house to change into dry clothes. There was a number of things Max could do about his situation. But considering the unique circumstances that had put him in said situation, Max felt that only a few of those things would actually result in something getting done. 

Then again, watching a dog get a permanent angel sweater knitted onto it wasn’t exactly something productive.

“Don’t you only make wings for the, uh, dead ones?” Max asked. 

“Just looking ahead, dear.” Nerris said, adjusting the dog squirming on her lap. “This little fella hasn’t been feeling very well as of late.”

“Nerris! Aren’t you getting ready?” Harrison called out from the depths of the basement apartment. 

Nerris sighed. “We’ve lost our ride, Harrison. Max says that David has vanished quite completely.”

“What?” Harrison poked his head around the corner. “We waited months for those tickets!”

“I suppose we could walk.” Nerris suggested. She tucked away her knitting needles, letting the dog go free. 

“With your legs? It’s nearly two miles to the theater.” Harrison scoffed. 

Before Nerris could reply and further the growing argument, Max coughed loudly.

“Oh, yes. Your missing guardian…” Nerris thought a moment. “Hm. We know what you need. Harrison-”

Harrison set down a bowl of taffy, identical to the one Max had previously gotten stuck on the ceiling when he’d last been here, onto the coffee table. Max frowned.

“How is 100-year-old candy gonna help?” 

Instead of an answer, Nerris took hold of her knitting needles like she was going to stab Max with them, but at the last moment attacked the bowl of taffy instead. As Max gasped for breath at his near-death experience, she quickly hacked away at the candy until it turned into a powder. Harrison bent down to blow away the remaining powder in the bowl and Nerris used her knitting needles to pluck out an object from the bowl. 

“There you go, sweetie.” She said holding out a stone with a hole in it.

Max took it and examined it. He peered through the wobbly hole in its center.

“What’s it for?” 

“Well, it might help.” Nerris shrugged. “They’re good for bad things sometimes.”

“No, they’re good for lost things.” Harrison corrected.

“It’s bad things, Harrison.”

“Lost things, Nerris.”

“Bad.”

“Lost.”

“Bad things!”

“Lost!”

Max got up from the couch and left the apartment, unnoticed by the two arguing. 

That night Max didn't sleep in his room. He grabbed Mr. Honeynuts and a small blanket and brought them to David’s room. The man usually wasn't in here as much as he should be. In the occasion Max might seek him out in the middle of the night he was more likely to be found pacing around the house. But associations were associations and Max was more interested in quelling the heavy weight in his gut than following logic. 

David often wore a bandana around his neck. Apparently, it was actually his old camp shirt from when he was a kid. The man was disgustingly sentimental, but at the moment Max found that the sentiment would finally serve him a purpose. The bandana was sometimes missing from David’s person, rarely but sometimes. The day he’d gone to the store he had left it in the closet. Max pulled out the worn yellow cloth and read the faded lettering on it. 

 

**C amp Ca m p**

 

It was supposed to read Camp Campbell, having been named after the sketchy owner. Max’s knowledge of the place was limited to David’s happy renditions of his experiences there, but he was pretty sure dear Mr. Campbell was a con artist. 

David’s bed was neatly done up, pillows fluffed and covers smoothed out. Max climbed onto the bed and pulled everything back. He took one of the pillows and squished it, trying to give it a vague shape, before tying the old bandana around it. Max thought the camp shirt bandana was stupid, but David tended to look weird when he didn't wear it.

Max propped up Pillow David against the headboard and tucked him in. 

“Night, David.” He said quietly and curled up under the covers. He had a hard time falling asleep.

Eventually, Max did manage some sleep, which he became aware of as something that kept repeatedly poking at his face woke him. He brushed it away at first in his hazy state, but that only made the poking increase. He opened his eyes. 

Jasper was about two inches from his face, purring loudly. 

“Hello,” Max frowned. “How did you get in?” 

Jasper took a few steps back to allow Max to sit up. The black cat began to groom himself. He couldn't give an answer in the regular world. Regardless of this restriction, Max asked him another question. 

“Do you know where David is?”

Jasper looked up and dipped his head in affirmation. He jumped off the bed and Max quickly followed. The cat brought him down the stairs, all the way to the end of the hallway where a certain mirror hung on the wall. Max didn't expect to be able to go through it again, but as he looked into it he suddenly wished he could. 

A nearly frozen figure stood in the depths of the mirror, shivering and huddling in on itself from the snow blowing harshly around them. Max couldn’t see him very clearly, but he knew it was David. The man looked up as Max let out a gasp and rushed towards the mirror. With a trembling hand, David started to write backward letters, the frosted glass squeaking under his fingers. 

 

**Help**

 

Almost as soon as the word was written it started to fade, as well as David.  Max let out a desperate cry, pressing his own hands against the mirror which quickly turned into slamming his fists against the glass until it shattered. He dropped to the ground with his arms wrapped protectively over his head as shards of mirror fell around him. Jasper stepped carefully around the sharp pieces and Max looked up.

“How did this happen?” He asked in a strained voice. 

Jasper turned back down the hall, this time leading Max to David’s bedroom. Max watched curiously as the cat squeezed himself under the bed. Moments later Jasper dragged out a doll with buttons eyes. It wasn’t the little Max doll that had mysteriously disappeared. In fact, Max had never seen it before. He picked it up and his breath rushed out of him in a huff of anger and despair. The doll looked like David.

“He fucking took him!” Max hissed out.

He threw the doll across the room. His eyes burned with unshed tears of frustration. Jasper meowed and nudged against his elbow. Max jerked his arm away. 

“I’m,” Max struggled to speak through his clenched jaw. “I am fucking burning that thing.”

He stood stiffly and grabbed the doll. Jasper followed as he went to the room with the fireplace. The doll caught fire all too quickly, the cloth turning into crumbling grey ash. Max sat, staring blankly, until long after the small fire went out. Jasper kept quietly by his side. 

“Y’know, when I first met David,” Max started to say, though his focus was distant. “I kind of hated him. I thought that he was always too annoying, too happy.”

Max rubbed tiredly at his eyes.

“He’s not. Not all the time. He just… tries to be optimistic. He tries to make everyone around him happy. Meanwhile, my… actual parents always tried to ignore me. I learned how to take care of myself and to only rely on myself, until David came along.”

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Max’s mouth.

“For the longest time, I tried to make him miserable because I thought that would make him give up. Like everyone else. Like my parents did when they…” Max trailed off. He shook his head.

“But David never did. For how much of a god damn pushover he is, he’s so stubborn over me. I guess it was a hard thing to remember though, these last few days. He got busy and I got angry and…”

A sob choked its way up Max’s throat. He pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes, his shoulders shuddering.

“I miss him,” He whined. “I miss him and I know he loves me, but I hate feeling like I’m being forgotten. I just want him to come back.”

Max brought his hands down to his lap. He turned his head to look at the little door with blurry vision. 

“But he’s not going to come back. He can’t. Not on his own.”

Jasper tilted his head as Max began to form a plan. After collecting himself, Max stood and walked up to his room with a steely determination. He undressed from his pajamas and put on his regular everyday clothes. When he grabbed the hoodie, the stone with a hole in it fell from the pocket and clattered noisily on the floor. Max picked it up, glanced at it sparingly, and shoved it back into his pocket. 

His hoodie pocket wouldn’t do for carrying more than a couple of small objects, though. Max had a backpack, but the point was for him to have ready access to the items he was planning on carrying. There was a pink book bag in David’s closet. He’d gotten it as a gift and even stuck a little tree charm button onto it, but had never actually used it.

Into the book bag went a pocket knife, a box of matches, a candle, and a pair of gardening clippers. As Max made to leave the room he paused by the bed. The pillow with the bandana tied around it still lay slouched against the headboard. Max went up to it, took the yellow bandana, and tied it around his own neck instead. Then he continued on to the room with the fireplace. 

Once he lit the candle and took a deep breath, Max opened the little door and began to crawl his way through with a slow but steady pace. Jasper easily caught up to him and trotted close to his side. About halfway down the dreary tunnel, the cat’s curse of silence lifted. 

“You know you’re walking right into his trap.” He said. 

“I know.” Max sighed. “But I have to go back.”

Jasper didn’t argue. Instead, he took a moment to go back into silence as he thought. 

“Challenge him then.” He finally suggested. Max glanced at him. “He may not play fair, but he won’t refuse. He’s got a thing for games.”

Max nodded. Likely he would have done that anyway. He refused to cowardly skirt around the problem he was facing. He would be leaving with David, one way or another.

A rush of wind flowed through the tunnel and blew out the candle. Max remained wary, but he stopped and reached into his bag for the box of matches.

“Max?”

Max dropped the box of matches before he even pulled them out from the bag. 

“David?” He called out in shock. He squinted down to other little door that had just opened. A shadowed figure was crouched down, blocking the moonlight seeping in. 

“Max! You came back for me!” David cheered in a voice that sounded like he was about two seconds from crying. 

“David!” Max scrambled to the door, colliding hard into David and squeezing his arms tight around the man’s middle.

“Oh, Max… Why would you run away from me?”

Max stiffened as a bony hand wrapped itself around his arm. He immediately pushed David away, finding that it wasn’t the man at all. 

The Other David’s bones creaked loudly as he stood upright, his false look of concern twisting into a sunken smirk. 

“Where’s David?” Max demanded.

“Gosh, I have no idea where the old David is. Perhaps he’s grown bored of you and run away to France.” The Other David suggested with a shrug of his sharp shoulders. 

“No,” Max scoffed and pointed an accusing finger. “You stole him!”

“Now don’t be difficult, Max.” The Other David tutted. “Have a seat won’t you?”

With a wave of his bony hands, Max was suddenly swept off the ground and found himself held down once again in a familiar bug chair. The bugs head cocked and its antenna twitched curiously when he looked up at it. 

Max’s attention was brought back to the Other David as he gave a quick clap-clap of his hands. A moment later, a rat with patchy fur came pouncing down the tunnel. In its jaws was the button handled key, which was placed obediently into the Other David’s hands. The thin man closed the little door and locked it. As the huge cockroach guard took its place in front of the little door, the Other David dropped the key down his throat and swallowed it up.

“Why don’t you have your own key?” Max snarked. 

“There’s only one-” The Other David abruptly cut himself off. He smiled at Max, the corners of his mouth pulling too hard at the skin of his cheeks. “Silly, I need to finish up breakfast.”

The Other David quickly left the room. Max narrowed his eyes. Only one key. He needed a way to get the button eyed man to cough it back up or he’d be stuck there regardless if he found the real David. A squeaking sound echoed faintly throughout the room. 

Max snapped his head around. He’d heard that noise before. It was the sound of backward letters being scribed onto frosted over glass. Max wiggled out from the bug chairs grasp and glanced around the room. 

“David?” Max spoke in a loud whisper. “Where’d he hide you?”

He was met only with silence. 

“Breakfast time!” The Other David called from the kitchen. 

Unwillingly, Max left the room with the fireplace. The scene he found in the kitchen was eerily reminiscent of when Max first stumbled upon the monster that had lured him here. The Other David stood in front of the stove, cooking and humming without a care in the world. Of course, now he looked much more out of place with the bleached hair and skin that stretched thin over his stick-like limbs. Max couldn’t help but wonder how easily those limbs could snap. He shook his head, clearing the thought from his mind, and continued into the kitchen to sit at the table. 

The Other David was only going to continue playing house if Max let him. Challenge him, Jasper had said. Challenge him about what though? Max couldn't exactly threaten him. Blackmail or a kick to the knees, either way, it really wouldn’t do a thing. What else had Jasper told him? Max’s eyes drifted to the box with the buttons and thread was placed like a centerpiece. 

“Why don’t we play… A game.” Max said, trying not to let the uncertainty he was feeling slip into his voice.

The Other David’s humming came to a halt. 

“I like games.” He said.

Alright, there was Max’s foot in the door. Now how did he force his way inside? What did he need to do? He needed to find David. 

“What kind of a game would it be?” 

Max licked his lips. The Other David wasn’t going to let him just casually look for the man. Unless…

“An exploring game. A finding things game.” Max said. 

A cruel chuckle emitted from the Other David. 

“And what is it you’d be finding, Max?” He asked, his voice dripping with false ignorance. His sharp fingers tapped along the countertop. Max swallowed.

“The real David.”

“Too easy.” The Other David singsonged.

Max bit his lip, forcing himself to swear only in his head. That wasn’t a no, but what else? What else did he need to find? What could he find?

“And,” Max stuttered out. “And the eyes of the ghosts.”

The Other David turned off the stove burner. He placed the bacon and eggs he’d cooked onto a plate and brought them to Max. There was a curious expression on his gaunt face.

“What if you don’t find them?” He asked. 

That was a question Max was unfortunately already prepared for. 

“If I lose, I stay here. Forever.” The Other David gave a wistful sigh. Max’s fingers curled into fists. “And I’ll let you sew buttons into my eyes.” 

The Other David gave a pleased hum and moved on to his next question. 

“And if you somehow win this game?” He asked, waving his hand in the air.

“Then you let me go. You let everyone go.” Max said. “The real David, the dead kids. Everyone you’ve trapped here.”

“Deal.” The Other David grinned and held out his hand. Max didn’t take it. 

“Not till you give me a clue.” Max said stubbornly and the Other David scowled. 

“All right.” The button-eyed man began a slow walk around the table, considering how to give away his hint. He stopped behind Max. 

“In each of three wonders I’ve made just for you,” The Other David dropped his hands to cover Max’s sight for a moment. “A ghost eye is lost in plain sight.”

Max resisted the urge to swat away the bony hands. The Other David leaned back against the sink. When he said nothing more, Max looked back at him.

“And for David?”

A grin and a chuckle were his only answer. The Other David tapped his sharp finger against his button eye. Max turned back to the table irritably. 

“Fine,” He gritted out, but when he went to face the button-eyed man he was gone. 

The game had begun. Max got up from his chair and rested his hands on the edge of the sink. In each of three wonders. What did he mean? 

Max looked up and his eyes widened. He drew back the window curtain to look out at the garden. He’d come to this world three times. Each time, something new was there to impress him. Wonder number one: The Garden. 

  
  



	5. Easier said than done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's one more chapter, Benny

The gate creaked as Max slowly pushed it open. He walked down the stone path without any idea of where his destination lie. What he was looking for had to be here, no doubt, but what exactly was he looking for? He was pretty sure he would have noticed an eyeball if he’d seen one before. 

The exotic plants that had once stood tall and vibrant were now sunken low to the ground, wilted and pathetic. Dried up leaves lay scattered among the path. As Max passed by the stone wall near the back of the garden, a vine with red leaves shuddered enthusiastically at his presence. Their attentiveness was more creepy than flattering, though. Everything here looked as though it had lost the will to live, but weren’t being given the mercy to actually die. 

Snapping at his ankles brought Max’s attention to the patch of yellow flowers with eyes. The dragon snappers were sickly looking and their weak attempts to bite him were annoying at best. It may have been partly the annoyance, but it was also the in the interest of putting them out of their misery that Max stepped on one. And another. And another. And a second later, sharp thorns sunk into his legs and swept them out from underneath him. 

Max fell into the patch of squished dragon snappers, crying out as his bag was dropped and spiky vines began to wrap themselves around him. More thorns dug into his body and Max realized they were meant to mimic the teeth of the blue bulbed plants attacking him. He was being steadily hauled towards a stone wall with a hole that had opened up between the bricks, from which the plants had also sprouted. He managed to keep one arm free and it was the only thing keeping him from being helplessly dragged across the ground. 

Max dug his fingers hard into the crevices of the path, using all his strength to fight against the opposing pull until he was able to get a grasp on his dropped bag. Several items had scattered out from it and he grabbed the first sharp one within reach. The gardening clippers were pleasantly suited for the situation. He quickly snipped each of his limbs free before the headless vines finally retreated back into the stone wall, the hole sealing itself up. 

Max started to collect his lost items but became distracted again as three huge pests began a second assault. They were easier to ward off, bouncing off of Max’s swatting hands like they were tiny gnats. Then he realized they weren’t putting up much a fight because what they were actually trying to do was steal something from him. With the three of them working together, they managed to hook their long proboscis’ under the object and started to fly away. Without thinking, Max threw whatever was in his hands in their direction in the hopes of knocking them down. 

The pink bag hit all three of the pests and they dropped down in a burst of sawdust along with the stolen object. Max picked up the bag and claimed back the stone with the hole in it. It must have fallen out of his pocket. 

“Why steal this?” Max held up the stone to his eye and peered through the wobbly center.

He was shocked at the unexpected change in his surroundings. While the garden had developed a sad withered look, the grayscale tone the stone had given it was something else entirely. Max turned slowly, still looking through the stone, seeing how blank everything was when it wasn’t painted with deceiving colors. He paused when he reached a puzzling mass. 

It was in a shadowed corner so he couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be with the lack of color, but it was the sparkle of light that caught his attention. A round glowing orb glittered enticingly and seemed so out of place amidst the empty background. That had to be what he was looking for. Max brought the stone away from his eye. 

Before he could take even a single step, he was blinded by two bright lights that suddenly ignited. Max stumbled back as the mass revealed itself to be a mechanical praying mantis with levers stuck in its spine. It rose its thick arms up threateningly and began to clamber after Max, who had already started running the moment the thing moved. 

Once he got to the bridge, he turned around to face the mechanical mantis, trying to recognize the glowing orb he’d seen. The stone was still in his hand and he brought up, just for a moment, to pinpoint the orb. The shifting levers on the insect’s back glittered. Max tucked the stone into his pocket and glanced at his position on the bridge. One of the mantis’ arms crashed down, splintering the wood of the bridge. 

Max climbed onto the rail of the bridge, balancing dangerously over the dark water and jack-o-lanterns that was the pond below. The other arm of the mantis bashed another hole into the bridge. Max aimed and pounced. He landed on his target only with the aid of one of the levers he managed to grab keeping him in place. Even so, he nearly slipped as the lever jerked itself from his grasp. 

His hands fluttered over the working levers, looking for the one with a round handle. The mantis spasmed as it clawed its way through the bridge, it’s weight making it break through the support entirely. Max’s hand found a shifting gear and he popped off the head to the handle. The bridge collapsed. Max barely managed to scramble his way back up the other half of the bridge as the mechanical mantis sunk far below what should have been the true depth of the pond.

As he heaved for lungfuls of air, Max watched as a wave of discoloration spread out from where the mantis had disappeared. Though he wasn’t looking through the stone, the garden had turned greyscale with a crackling noise that sounded like chipping paint. Max nearly dropped the little round handle he’d snatched as it suddenly spoke to him. 

“You found me!” A familiar whispering voice cheered. “But there’s two eyes still lost.”

Max nodded at the glittering orb in his hands. He had a pretty good idea where they were at. How much harder could it be to get them compared to what he’d just done? 

He tucked the ghost-eye into his bag and trekked back to the Pink Palace. As he came up the side where the basement stairs were, he heard discordant music faintly echoing from inside. Wonder number two: The Theatre.

Max entered with caution. He slowly brushed past the entrance curtains, his eyes falling down on an abandoned flashlight. He picked it up, clicked it on, and shined it across the empty seats. There was no audience to attack him. Max continued on down the aisle, swinging the light from side to side, not letting anything sneak up on him. There was a rustling from above him. 

Max quickly pointed the light at the rafters and found the missing dog audience. Looking more leathery than furry, the dogs hung upside down like bats. They appeared asleep until the light reflected off their red eyes, one of them opening up a pair of wings and growling in warning. Max immediately flipped the flashlight to face the ground, turning it off as well for good measure. No need to purposely piss off the hellhounds.

Max kept a careful eye on the shadowed rafters, intending to make a safe search in the dark, but the bang of stage lights stole away his focus. He turned and narrowed his eyes at what appeared to be a neatly wrapped piece of giant candy hanging in the spotlight. It screamed trap, the thing was literally gift-wrapped for him. With very few other options, though, Max continued down the rest of the aisle and heaved himself up onto the stage. 

As he got closer, he could see figures inside the tissue wrapper that the stage lights were illuminating. Before he did anything stupid, Max reached into his bag and pulled out the stone with a hole in it. The pastel wrapper turned a harsh white and something in the grasp hands of the figures glittered. The stone was tucked away and the pocket knife took its place in Max’s grip. Yes, the tissue paper would break easily under his fingers. No, he didn’t want to stick his hand into the weird candy womb.

With the tip of the knife, he awkwardly flicked out the grasped hands of the figures from the wrapper. He grimaced as he looked at their tightly wound arms, inhumanly stretched. Their skin was a pastel pink and mint green, the texture like hand-pulled taffy. Sticky taffy, Max noted, as he pinched the fingers in his attempt to wiggle apart their tight hold on each other. His efforts resulted in a pair of fused dice that lay cupped in the figures palms. 

“This is too easy.” Max muttered to himself. 

He plucked up the dice and shrieked as the taffy hands snapped closed like a bear trap around his own. The figures burst their heads out from the wrapper, snarling with boneless taffy faces. 

“FUCKING CALLED IT! FUCKING CALLED IT!” Max screamed.

He scrambled across the stage, though to no avail as the taffy arms of the Other Nerris and Harrison simply stretched out along with him. He could not shake off their sticky grip. 

“THIEF!” The Other Nerris screeched. 

“Give it back!” The Other Harrison demanded. 

They repeated their tirades as they climbed further out of the candy wrapper, pulling themselves across the stage with their other conjoined limb. Max was backed up to the edge of the stage. He looked around wildly, desperate for some means of escape. His eyes found their way up to the rafters. 

With the flashlight still in his other hand, Max clicked the light up at the ceiling of the theater. However, the taffy magicians were yanking on his arm, making it hard to keep the aim of the light on the bat-dogs long enough to really irritate them. As a last resort, Max simply chucked the whole flashlight at them. It hit one dog on its way up, another on the way down, and in seconds the whole pack was nose-diving at him in a flurry of furious barking. 

Timing it just right, Max ducked and pressed himself as flat as he could to the stage floor, the bat-dogs flying blindly at the Other Nerris and Harrison instead. The delayed whip of the conjoined taffy arm flipped Max over the stage, but his hand was freed. The hectic howling of the magicians and the dogs were silenced as the wave of greyscale sprouted from somewhere in the tangled mess of leathery wings and taffy limbs. Max looked down at the bright pink-green dice in his hand.

“Hurry on, boy! The web is unwinding!” The whispering ghost told him in a voice of barely contained excitement. 

Max tucked the ghost-eye into his bag to join the first. Two down one to go. He was on a roll. He made his way out of the theater, unfortunately unable to locate the flashlight he’d thrown, and rounded around the front porch to the towering set of stairs that led to the upstairs apartment. Wonder number three: The Circus Tent.

As Max scaled up the stairs, his sight was drawn to the moon in the sky. A strange shadow was overcoming it, but it had not shifted out far enough for Max to quite tell what it was. He didn’t dwell on it long anyway, as he glanced to what was hanging above the apartment door. A little muddy raincoat with blue gloves and matching boots flowed gently in the wind. 

“Oh, Spacekid…” 

Max's fists gripped the fabric of his hoodie, practically strangling it in his fury. He tore away his gaze and threw himself against the rail, shouting out into the night, “YOU SICK FUCKING BASTARD! I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU!”

Max dropped his head with a heavy sigh. The creak of a door opening made him turn his head. He left the rail and stepped inside the apartment, closing the door behind him. He walked tensely past the line up of cotton candy cannons before hearing something skitter behind him. He whirled around, continuing to back away from the noise. From behind the cannons rose up what should have been the Amazing Preston. Instead, it looked more like possessed clothes of the Amazing Preston, bonelessly flopping around in a horrifying mimicry of human limbs. 

“Hello! Hello… Hello….” The ringmaster uniform slurred. 

Max didn’t reply to the greeting. He kept himself a good distance from the creature struggling to keep itself balanced upright. 

“Is this what you’re looking for?” In its gloved hand, the little red ball with a star printed on it was presented. 

Max dug out the stone and held it up to his eye. The red ball glittered brightly against the white splayed fingers that held it. Max lunged out to try and swipe it from the seemingly uncoordinated creature. However, the ringmaster suit was fast enough to flick its wrist and make the ball disappear up its sleeve. 

“Do you think winning this game is a good thing?” The ringmaster suit scoffed, though the words were pronounced with great difficulty. 

It dragged itself away, Max skirting around its wide movements. Somehow losing it in the small apartment, Max brought the stone back up to his eye to track the creature via the ghost-eye.

“You’ll just go home and be bored….” The creature’s voice came from an untraceable point in the room. “And neglected, same as always…”

Max scowled at the choice of words, stirring up a fierce anger from another place inside him entirely. The ringmaster suit dropped down in front of him, swaying from the rafters of the apartment.

“Stay here with us.” It said. “We will listen to you! And laugh with you!” 

On the last sentence, it swayed too far forward and slipped from its perch, slumping onto the floor in a formless pile. The ringmaster suit gathered itself grumpily and dived into the circus tent at the back of the room. Max went in after it. 

“If you stay here, you could have whatever you want! Always!” 

The ringmaster suit was crouched on a pile of cheese wheels. It shifted to sit with its so-called elbows resting where its knees should have been. Max lifted the stone to his eyes and the little red ball glittered just beneath the creature’s hat. He took a step closer. 

“You don’t get it.” Max said. “You don’t get it at all.”

“I don’t understand…” The creature moaned with what seemed to be genuine confusion. Max took another step closer.

“Of course, you don’t understand. You’re just a copy the Other David… a copy the  _ Other _ made of the real Preston.” Max said, stepping right up the ringmaster suit. 

The creature crossed its arms, something convulsing beneath its cloth skin.

“Not even that,” It said in a distorted hiss. “Anymore…”

Max reached out and pulled off the hat. An ugly rat, with its arms wrapped tight around the little red ball, let out a screech and Max startled backwards. The ringmaster suit exploded into hundreds of rats that scattered out of the circus tent. Max barely dodged the rat with the little red ball as it rolled away on a cheese wheel. He tried to chase it but was hit with several sticks of cotton candy as the rats aimed the cannons at him until he lost his balance. 

He kept flat against the ground until the cannons ceased their fire, then looked up to see the rat on the cheese wheel about to roll right out the front door. He caught the gleeful, crooked-tooth grin on its face and Max’s blood boiled. He brought his arm back and threw the stone still in his hand at the rat. It would have been a direct hit if the rat hadn’t jumped. The stone sailed through the air and disappeared into the night. 

“Fuck!” Max cried out and leapt up after it, but was instantly tripped by another set of rats. 

He tumbled through the door, colliding hard into the rail. His whole body dented the metal and Max groaned as stars burst behind his eyes. His aching head barely registered the rail rip away from the house and begin to fall. Max screamed as the whole set of stairs crashed into the ground and flung him across the grass. 

It took several moments for him to stop seeing double of everything. When his vision finally did clear, Max slowly sat up and tried to remember what he was even doing. The stone. Where was the stone? Max looked around frantically. It was gone. A darkness slowly crept across the lawn. Max looked up. The moon was almost completely overshadowed by a big black button.

Max pulled the pink bag close to him, reaching inside and pulling out the two ghost eyes. He rested his fingers in the empty spot in his palm where the third eye should have been.

“Oh, God. I’ve lost the game.” Max whispered. “I’ve lost  _ everything _ .”

The true weight of this admittance hit him heavily and his eyes welled with tears. He curled up into a little ball, sobs making his shoulders shudder. He almost missed the sound of Jasper’s meow. Max lifted his head up. The head of a rat lay at the cat’s paws, as well as the little red ball. 

“I think I’ve mentioned that I don’t like rats at the best of times.” Jasper said, humbly grooming himself.

Max wiped away his tears, a shaky smile taking place on his face. 

“I think you might’ve said something like that.”

“It looked like you needed this one, however.” Jasper batted the ball over to Max. 

“Thank you.” Max said and picked up the last ghost eye. 

From the spot that he picked up the little ball, the grass turned white, the greyscale wave spreading out all over the lawn and house. Max tucked the ghost-eye into his bag. 

“I’m heading inside. I still have to find David.” He told Jasper.

Something fluttered down in front of Max. Something like chipped paint. A lot of somethings. He looked up. The button had finished overshadowing the moon and was now crackling as the whole night sky began to peel away. Everything around them was getting stripped away into a blank nothingness. Jasper’s tail puffed up and Max wrenched his bag open in a panic, holding it out to the black cat.

“Come on! Quickly!” Max urged and Jasper leaped into the pink bag.

Max heaved the bag into his arms so it wouldn’t hit against his legs as he ran up the porch, the stairs ripping away as he stepped on them, and dashed into the house. He slammed the door behind them.

“Fucking Christ.” Max wheezed.

He straightened up and started walking down the hallway, Jasper choosing to remain tucked inside his bag. The wallpaper began to peel as he passed by. There was a blue hue coming from the room with the fireplace. Max peeked around the door and after noting nothing particularly surprising, he entered. 

The room, much like everything else had become, was dreary and depressing. The bug furniture looked old and worn and moved as though it hurt them to do so. Max backed his way towards the fireplace, where a cold blue fire was giving off the hue that lit up the room. Jasper tensed in his grasp, growling at the larvae couch. 

“So, you’re back.” The Other rasped. “And you brought vermin with you?”

The button-eyed monster was looking a lot worse for wear. His skin was pulled tight over his face and something like stitching seemed to be the only thing keeping it together over his sharp cheekbones. His sharp fingers seemed to have worn through the skin entirely, leaving only needlepoint joints that vaguely resemble hands. The rest of his limbs didn’t even try to hold a likeness to any sort of human form.

“No,” Max said, placing a protective hand on Jasper’s head. “I...Brought a friend.”

The Other rolled his shoulders, making his bones crack. Then he stood and stepped close to Max, towering over him.

“You know I love you.” He said, bringing up a hand to give a little  _ boop  _ to Max’s nose. Max grimaced at the touch. 

“You have a very funny way of showing it.” 

The Other waved him off, instead, clasping his hands together and asking, “So, where are they? The ghost eyes?

His tone was teasing. He didn’t think that Max had actually gotten all three. Max kept a firm glare at the Other as he reached into his bag and presented the three eyes. The Other frowned once he saw them before quickly lashing out with a sharp hand. Max all too readily pulled his hand back, much faster, keeping the ghost eyes far from those needle fingers. 

“Hold on,” He chastised. “We aren’t finished yet, are we?”

“No, I suppose not.” The Other sighed. “After all, you still need to find precious old David, don’t you?”

The Other smirked. 

“Too bad you won’t have  _ this _ .” With a flick of his wrist, the Other revealed the stone with a hole in it twirling around his finger. He laughed and tossed it into the fire where it dissolved into a cloud of ash. 

Max ducked his head. At least, technically, he didn’t need the stone anymore. He had all the ghost eyes. But it probably would have made finding David a lot easier. Which was the whole point. Max blinked as one of the ghost eyes glittered. Making sure that the Other wasn’t paying him any attention, Max brought the eyes close to listen to their whisper. 

“You must be clever. Even if you win, he’ll never let you go!” They said.

Max nodded. Yeah, he’d already gotten that kind of vibe from the button-eyed creep. He looked at the little door, still blocked by the cockroach. Still locked. Max could find David, he knew he could find David. What he needed was for that damn door to be ready for him to hightail it out of there at any given moment. 

Max turned back to the Other and sized him up. He was being entirely too cocky for his own good. 

“I already know where you’ve hidden him.” Max lied. The Other raised a brow.

“Well, produce then.” He said. 

“He’s behind that door.” Max said, pointing. 

“Oh, is he now?”

The Other made his way over to the little door. With a wave of his hand, the cockroach moved to the side. Max backed away from them. The Other was going to open his escape right up for him, now he just needed to find fucking David. 

It seemed the man heard his thoughts as Max became aware of a familiar squeaking sound. Jasper also noticed it, his ears twitching attentively. 

“There!” He hissed out, leaping from the bag onto the mantle of the fireplace. He curled around a snowglobe that was casually set amongst all the other ridiculous knickknacks. 

A tiny figure was wiping at the frosted over glass and when Max squinted he saw that it was David. The snowglobe he was stuck in was, of course, a Camp Campbell snowglobe, of all things. Max could see the irony of owning a snowglobe that represented a summer camp, but David had never seemed bothered by it. Maybe he’d rethink that indifference now that he’d been trapped in it for who knew how long. 

“God, David. Are you fucking kidding me?” Max whispered, but there was a smile on his face.

The happy little reunion was interrupted by harsh hacking. The Other spit out the button handled key into his hands and paused to look back at Max with mocking grin on his face. Max crossed his arms stubbornly.

“Go on, open it!” He said. “David will be there, all right.”

“You’re wrong, Max….” The Other singsonged, opening the door. “He isn’t there.”

Obviously.

“Now,” The Other rolled his shoulders, bones cracking, and held up a needle and thread. “You’re going to stay here forever.”

“No,” Max said firmly.

“I’m,” He grabbed Jasper, the cat letting out a noise of surprise.

“NOT!” He threw Jasper as hard as he could at the Other. 

The cat yowled as he flew through the air, his claws sinking into the Other’s face as he landed on him. While they struggled with each other in fits of screeching, Max swiftly grabbed the snowglobe and shoved it into his bag. He edged out to the middle of the room, waiting anxiously for the Other to move far enough from the little door.

Jasper’s sharp little claws caught on the black button eyes and tore them from the Other’s face, blinding him. The buttonless monster screamed in agony, angrily tossing the cat away from him. 

“You horrible cheating child!” He snarled. 

He slammed a hand against the wall and the floor suddenly dipped, spiraling out like a spider’s web. And Max, who had been standing in the middle of the room, fell right into the depths of its center. The Other cackled maniacally and leaped down the spiraled web.

Max flipped himself upright and began to climb up the webbing before the Other landed on him. The webbing bounced, wriggling loudly, as the Other felt around the bottom of the web. 

“No! Where are you?” He wailed. “You fucking brat!”

Max paid his insults no mind as he steadily climbed closer to the little door. Near the top, he stopped. He was on the wrong side of the web. Max squeezed in between the webbing and began to climb upwards again, but his bag caught. In his rush, he simply tugged on it until it sprung free. The webbing wriggled. Loudly. 

The Other’s head snapped around, looking directly at Max regardless of his lack of sight. Max swore under his breath and continued climbing up the rest of the webbing. He reached the door and plucked out the key before heaving himself up into the tunnel. 

“You dare disobey your father?” The Other screeched, trying to force himself into the tunnel before Max kicked him the face.

Max grabbed the doorknob, trying to shut it, but wasn’t quite strong enough with the Other’s clawed grip keeping it open. Just when he was starting to lose his grip, a cold chill settled into Max’s bones. His strength increased just for a moment and the Other only managed to stick in a needle jointed hand before the door slammed shut and lopped it off. Max flinched away from it, but it didn’t move. There was an eerie silence. Max fumbled with the button handled key and locked the little door with a quiet  _ click _ . 

The Other screamed. He banged on the door, making the tunnel rattle as Max tried to crawl away. The door followed him closer with every slam it suffered. 

“Don’t leave me! DON’T LEAVE ME!” The muffled voice of the Other cried. “I’ll die without you!”

Closer, closer. Max burst out the other little door and into the real world. He slammed the door shut and locked it. One last bang of the Other’s door slammed against Max’s and it rattled the whole room. Max gasped for breath, staring at the little door. 

He got out. He looked over at the pink bag and grabbed it, peering inside. Three ghost eyes. No snowglobe. It must have fallen out when he’d tumbled through the door just then. After all that, the snowglobe must have fallen out  _ here _ . Max looked around wildly, crawling along on his hands and knees. It must have fallen here, he’d search the whole fucking room-

His hand slapped down into a glittery puddle. He blinked as several more glittery drips fell on his hand. Max looked up to see the Camp Campbell snowglobe shattered on the mantle. He stood up and tilted his head, a little confused. Was that his snowglobe?

The front door opened and shut. 

“Max, I’m home!” David called out. 

Max had never turned around more quickly in his life. David came walking down the hall, trying to shove his wallet into his pocket. 

“David!” He shouted, a little too loudly as he made David startle. The man let out an  _ oof _ as Max collided into him, wrapping his arms tight around his middle. 

“What’s this about?” David chuckled, resting his hands on Max’s back. 

Max opened his mouth, about to snap at him for glossing over that whole adventure, but stopped. David had an honest to god look of clueless on his face. Fuck him, this was one of those ‘grown-ups can’t remember shit’ situations. Max clamped his mouth shut. David blinked down at him patiently. 

“Uh,” Max began hesitantly. “I just…”

_ Oh, get  _ over _ yourself. _

“I’m really glad,” Max said, letting his words muffle as he pressed his face against David. “That you’re my dad.”

“Oh,” David let out a nervous laugh, obviously not expecting the sentiment. “Well, I’m glad I get to be your dad, Max.”

He paused. 

“Now why in the world do you look like Nikki after a wolf fight?”

“Don’t ruin the moment, David.”

  
  



	6. It’s over forever thank fucking god

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodbye, Benny. Oh, what's that? You've crawled inside my skin and refuse to be evicted? Welp, can't argue with that.

When David had originally left that one morning, so long ago it seemed now, dropping off his work was one of his errands. Which meant that he was able to finally relax since he no longer had a deadline to rush. His lack of stress helped in letting slide the fact that his favorite snowglobe was broken, despite Max’s insistence that he didn’t break it. 

The man took them out to eat, finding a pizza place that even Max couldn’t be picky about. Though, Max could have been taken to the worst restaurant in the world he would’ve hardly cared. Not that David needed to know the full rundown of that, Max still preferred pizza over his cooking any day. 

By the end of the night, Max was arguably as cheerful as David was. He felt like being more agreeable to the garden party idea the man brought up than he might normally. It was David’s way of combining his love for nature while also getting to actually meet the neighbors since he’d been cooped up inside working for several days. 

“I’m gonna get little invitations and send them out,” David said. “Oh, it’ll be so fun!”

David was sat at the end of Max’s bed, rocking back and forth in his inability to keep still from excitement. Max was only halfway tucked in as he’d distracted his guardian by asking him about the garden party. 

“There’s only three people for you to invite, David.” 

“Do you think I’m overdoing it?” David frowned.

“...Nah.” Max said, resting his chin on his knees. “It’s you. Of course you’d give out invitations.”

David’s grin spread out on his face again. 

“I’ve already ordered a whole bunch of tulips! I bet we can fill up the whole garden with them!”

Though the man could have kept on talking, eventually Max yawned and David finished tucking him in. 

“Goodnight, Max. Goodnight, Mr. Honeynuts.” David said, giving a pat to each of their heads before turning off the light and closing the door behind him. 

Max lay in his bed until he heard David walking down the stairs. Then he sat up and reached under his bed for the pink bag. He still had some souls to set free. He placed the head of a gear shift, the pink-green die, and the little red ball with a star printed on it under his pillow. As he turned around to lay down, his gaze fell on the black cat sitting outside his window. Jasper meowed at him.

“Oh,” Max got out of his bed. “Hello again.” 

He opened up the window, but Jasper did not come inside. The cat remained stiffly on the windowsill, ears flat against his head and tail lashing. 

“Are you still mad?”

No answer. Max rubbed at his arm and ducked his head. 

“I’m sorry I threw you at him. The Other.” Max said. “Really. It was all I could think of.”

Jasper’s tail continued to twitch, but he stood and stepped one of his paws into the room. He relaxed more so when Max reached out and began to pet him. A low rumbling purr rose from within the black cat and he brushed his cheek against Max’s chest until he was picked up and carried back to the bed. Jasper curled up at the end of the mattress and Max settled under the covers. 

He didn’t remember closing his eyes, but Max was pretty sure his ceiling wasn’t a bright blue blur. Faint whispering echoed around him until golden sparks bursts into three figures. The three ghosts hovered in front of him, looking a lot more happy and lively than they had in the room behind the mirror they’d been trapped in. 

“Thank you.”

“Well,” Max said, with a grin. “I’m just glad that shit show is over and done with.” 

His smile fell, however, when the ghosts only glanced at each other with a much too unsettling silence. 

“Our fate has been rectified,” Said the large ghost.

“But you’re in terrible danger.” Finished the girl, rushing close.

“What do you mean?” Max asked. “I locked the door-” The large ghost cut him off. 

“It’s the key. There’s only one,” He said. “And the Other  _ will _ find it.”

In his slight paranoia, Max had strung up the button handled key into a necklace and hung it around his neck, tucked under his clothes. The ghost waved his hand and the key drifted out from Max’s shirt. Max snatched it from the air, bringing it back close to his chest. 

“It’s not all bad…” The little ghost reached out a hand and laid it gently on Max’s arm. “You’re alive.  _ You’re still alive _ .”

Max snapped his eyes open and lunged forward with a gasp. Jasper blinked at him as he tried to untangle himself from his blankets. Then he grabbed his pillow and tossed it aside. The ghost eyes lay shattered, as though they had been made from glass. Max clutched at his chest, fumbling for the key under his shirt. 

“I gotta hide this somewhere,” Max said. “Somewhere it can’t ever-”

He stopped talking, glancing at the door. Jasper narrowed his eyes at it as well. Without giving away anything more about his intentions, Max slipped out of the bed and made his way to leave the room. His path ended up blocked by Jasper.

“Out of my way!” Max hissed out, hooking his foot under the cat’s stomach and sliding him to the side. 

Though David was longer wandering around the house, Max crept quietly down the stairs and along the hall. He slipped on his yellow rain boots and continued on outside, past the garden to the muddy trail that led to the old well. While he kept a steady pace, the confidence he showed in his steps was false. Anxiety swam in his gut and wasn’t from taking a stroll in the woods in the middle of the night. 

Once he reached the old well, Max easily dug up a large stick and stuck it beneath the wooden panel. He pried it off with a grunt and stood before the deep, dark hole. He’d hate to fall in it. And he was pretty sure anyone else would feel the same. Which was why he was going to drop the button handled key down into its depths. At the very least, if a  _ certain someone _ somehow went after it, they’d be stuck. 

From beneath his shirt, Max pulled out the key. Before he could free himself of the string it was attached to, however, something flew at him and knocked him back, thankfully not into the well. As he was dragged across the ground by the string still around his neck, he caught a glimpse of a familiar needle-jointed hand. For such a small thing it had incredible strength and was very quick, leaving Max unable to even free himself of the makeshift necklace that was now choking him much less get it away from the Other’s severed hand. 

A triumphant yell suddenly echoed in the clearing. A little distracted from not being able to breathe, Max half-heartedly glanced around to see where the unexpected noise had come from. The slightest lack of tension around his neck told him the hand was also curious as to what it was. A moment later they were given an answer as Spacekid appeared from seemingly nowhere and punted the needle jointed hand across the clearing. Max rolled to his side with a gasp for air, coughing as his lungs complained about the momentary lack of oxygen.

“Are you okay?” Spacekid asked. A dismissive wheeze was his only reply.

The little victory was short lived as the hand proceeded to lunged at Space Kid's face. It bounced off his head, the boy was wearing the glass bowl over his head as always, but he shrieked nonetheless. He also stumbled backward and tripped over Max right into the well. Max quickly recovered and scrambled over to the other boy. Spacekid had managed to grab onto the edge of the hole with one hand, his fingers dug in tight to the muddy earth. He stared up at Max with wide eyes. 

“Shit, hang on.” Max grabbed onto Spacekid’s wrist. “Give me your other hand.”

“I can’t reach.” Spacekid said, raising his other arm uselessly. The glass bowl on his head was serving to block him the way a dog cone might. 

Max let out a frustrated noise, grabbing the fishbowl and tugging it off with a  _ pop _ . At the same time, he was assaulted again by the Other’s severed hand. He was knocked away from the well, but he managed to roll himself onto his stomach. When the hand came after him, Max got to his knees and slammed the glass bowl down onto the hand. 

His intention was admittedly to crush it, but instead he’d managed to trap it inside the confines of the glass. The mud suctioned the bowl to the ground and Max decided that for the moment he could leave it unattended as he took care of more important matters. 

Spacekid still hung from the edge of the well, but he’d managed to get a grip with his other hand. Max helped him the rest of the way up. 

“What… Is that?” Spacekid said in a voice that was too calm for how much he was shaking. 

“A hand.” Max walked over to the fishbowl. 

A dull thunking sounded from within as the hand bashed itself against the glass. Max might have stared at it a little longer, enjoying it’s frustrated panic, except the glass bowl started to crack under its ministrations. He turned to find something to finally end this thing, but Spacekid beat him to it, dropping a huge rock onto the cracking bowl. The glass shattered and the hand broke into pieces. Spacekid gave a hard stare at the remains, his jaw working. 

Eventually, he looked up and asked, “So, was that, like, an alien? Or something?”

“...No.” Max sighed. He removed the key from his neck. “I need to get this all down the well.”

“Wait, I’ll do it. I have gloves.” Spacekid stepped forward. 

Piece by piece the boy threw the glass shards and the broken needle joints of the hand into the abyss of the well while Max dropped in the key. Both of them pushed the wooden cover back over the hole, sealing it shut.

“Hey, um. I’m sorry about that stuff I said before.” Spacekid said. “You know, when I called you crazy? Guess there was something weird going on after all.” 

“Eh, I wouldn’t have believed me either.” Max shrugged, brushing mud off himself. “What are you doing out here though? It wasn’t just to say sorry, was it?”

“Oh,” Spacekid blinked. “I was looking for moon rocks.”

He smiled obviously as Max couldn’t help but laugh at the simplicity of the reason. Then Spacekid frowned as a voice echoed into the clearing.

_ “Spacekid! Come home!”  _

“Aw, shoot.” Spacekid whined. “What am gonna tell her? I’m really bad at lying.”

Max glanced in the direction of the Pink Palace. After a moment's consideration, he spoke.

“Why don’t you bring her by the house tomorrow.” He suggested. “We can both explain things.”

“Really?” Spacekid asked, the worry in his face already seeping away.

“Yeah.” 

A meow made the two turn to the tree stump in the middle of the clearing. Jasper was sat on it, a content expression on his face. Max smiled.

 

\---

 

The garden party wasn’t as bad as Max was expecting it to be. Planting tulips wasn’t a very difficult or overly social task, especially when Max only pretended to be doing either. Oh sure, the neighbors were as idiotic and annoying as they always were. Nerris and Harrison had brought the dog with the angel costume knitted onto it. Apparently, he wasn’t actually as sick as they thought he was. Preston had stuck himself under the bridge and for some reason started replacing tulips with beets until Max caught him and threatened his jumping mice.

It would take a few hours to get the near hundreds of tulips David had ordered planted all over the garden. The man was happy, though, and for once it wasn’t raining. 

“Spacekid, stop pulling my god damn arm out of its socket. I know where we’re going, I grew up here.”

Gwen, the owner of the Pink Palace and Spacekid’s aunt, was something a little unexpected. Max had a feeling he was going to get along very well with her. 

  
  



End file.
